U.S. v. Miller

Dist. Ct. erred in sentencing defendant to 87-month term of incarceration on unlawful possession of firearm charge, where said sentence was based in part on Dist. Ct.’s erroneous understanding of extent of defendant’s criminal history. Record showed that defendant had five prior felonies, yet Dist. Ct. believed that defendant had six prior felonies, which it emphasized when imposing instant sentence. Ct. rejected govt. argument that any error was harmless given defendant’s overall extensive criminal history, since harmless error review is inappropriate where sentencing judge has relied on misinformation, and where instant miscount of felonies received explicit attention when Dist. Ct. selected defendant’s sentence using section 3553(a) factors.