Opinion ID: 2977900
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mrs. Adams’s sentencing

Text: Mrs. Adams’s sentencing hearing was held in May 2007. Her counsel argued that she was eligible for a sentence reduction due to her acceptance of responsibility for her actions. The government countered that she should be given an enhancement for obstructing justice. Noting that it faced a “difficult issue,” the district court ultimately agreed with both sides’ arguments. The court found that Mrs.Adams had obstructed justice by protecting her coconspirators and by lying about her financial assets to her probation officer. Mrs. Adams was therefore given a two-level upward adjustment and deemed ineligible for the safety-valve reduction. But because Mrs. Adams had “done everything that the government asked her to do,” including taking a polygraph examination, the court found that Mrs. Adams’s case presented one of those “extraordinary” circumstances contemplated by Application Note 4 to U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, where an acceptance of responsibility can coexist with an obstruction-of-justice enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1. The Probation Office calculated Mrs. Adams’s total offense level to be 24 with a criminal history category of I, resulting in a Guidelines range of 60 to 63 months. After Mrs. Adams declined her opportunity to speak regarding the appropriate sentence, the court sentenced her to 60 months in prison—the bottom of the applicable Guidelines range.