WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Mexican man who said he received an unfairly long prison sentence for re-entering the United States after being deported.
The justices ruled Wednesday that Saul Molina-Martinez’s rights were violated when a federal judge used the wrong sentencing guideline range to give him a 77-month prison sentence.
Molina-Martinez should have been subject to a guideline range of 70 months to 87 months. But the judge mistakenly placed Molina-Martinez in a higher category that called for a range of 77 months to 96 months.
A federal appeals court ruled that the error didn’t violate Molina-Martinez’s rights because the judge’s sentence was within both the correct and incorrect ranges.
The Supreme Court disagreed and ordered a new sentencing hearing.
- Posted April 25, 2016
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Justices rule for Mexican man in sentencing case

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