Court Opinion

ID: 9472622
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:05:58.724256+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:02.774392
License: Public Domain

GEORGE CLIFTON EDWARDS, Jr., Circuit Judge,
concurring specially.
I concur in Judge Cudahy’s opinion remanding this case for a rehearing on sentence. I believe that the new amendments governing the hearing on sentence should be interpreted as requiring the District Judge to address the Defendant personally and thus learn from him that he has had time to read and understand the report. The rehearing may, of course, shed no new light and may cause no change in the sentence. But it is clear to me that the 1983 changes (See Rule 32(c)(3)(A)) mandate our remand for the reasons ably outlined in Judge Cudahy’s opinion.
In my opinion the opportunity for the subject of the sentencing hearing to be addressed personally by the judge and have any relevant dispute of fact resolved through testimony, if within the trial judge’s discretion it is found necessary, will strengthen the appearance and the reality of fairness. It may send the person sentenced to the appointed place of confinement somewhat less resentful and more subject to rehabilitation than he would be otherwise.