Judge Must Redo Sentence After Misusing Career Offender Status

A Louisiana drug defendant is entitled to a new sentencing hearing because his original sentence was improperly calculated using the enhancement for career offenders, a federal appeals court said.

The sentencing judge relied on the presentence report to determine that Gene Rudolph was a career offender, but that report lacked “an adequate evidentiary basis with sufficient indicia of reliability” to be used for that purpose, Judge James E. Graves Jr. said Thursday for the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Rudolph objected to his PSR after he pleaded guilty in July 2021 to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms ...