Opinion ID: 1443071
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Shy's Sentence

Text: The district court properly calculated the applicable Guidelines range for Shy and considered the Guidelines and the § 3553(a) factors. However, the district court failed to adequately explain Shy's sentence with sufficient justifications for the downward variance. See id. at 594 (It is also clear that a district judge must give serious consideration to the extent of any departure from the Guidelines and must explain his conclusion that an unusually lenient or an unusually harsh sentence is appropriate in a particular case with sufficient justifications.). When Shy was arrested, she possessed methamphetamine, but the district court did not discuss this critical fact at sentencing. Shy's rehabilitation and the effectiveness of her participation in the drug treatment program are called into question by her possession of methamphetamine at the time of her arrest. Shy's possession of methamphetamine undercuts the district court's conclusion that [b]y all indications Shy was no longer the same person who committed the crime two years earlier and was capable of cleaning up her act and avoiding criminal conduct in the future. Given this procedural error, we are not able to conduct a meaningful review of the reasonableness of Shy's sentence. Accordingly, we remand for resentencing to allow the district court to consider all of Shy's conduct, including the methamphetamine possession, in fashioning a sentence.