A sentencing judge who fails to explain how a starting sentence was derived and how a discount was allocated among multiple mitigating factors commits legal error through lack of transparency, but the appeal will be dismissed if the resulting sentence is within the appropriate range. The value of assistance to authorities assessed as 'low' by police will support only a limited discount. The question whether State sentencing guideline judgments are binding in federal jurisdiction remains open.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 9 later cases that cite this judgment.
5 of the 9 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.