United States v. Ross Hack

ORDER

The petition for rehearing is GRANTED in part and DENIED in part. The memorandum disposition filed on February 16, 2011 is amended. The amended memorandum disposition will be filed concurrently with this order. Subsequent petitions for rehearing and petitions for rehearing en banc may be filed.

AMENDED MEMORANDUM

The district court did not commit procedural error in imposing its sentence; it calculated the appropriate Guidelines range, explained why it decided to deviate from the Guidelines range, and gave the parties an opportunity to discuss the proposed sentence before finalizing it. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 , 128 S.Ct. 586 , 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007).

The sentence imposed was substantively reasonable, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in assessing a 36-month imprisonment term. The district court looked at all of the § 3553(a) factors, but put the most weight on the first factor, the nature and circumstances of the offense. The district judge found by clear and convincing evidence that Hack’s motive for committing the passport fraud was to evade the police murder investigation. This finding is supported by substantial evidence in the…