A sentencing judge who expresses a provisional or tentative indication of sentence is entitled to revise that indication upwards after considering relevant case law, guideline judgments, and sentencing statistics, provided the final sentence is the product of careful reconsideration rather than a self-imposed constraint treating an available sentence as outside the permissible range. The distinction is between a judge who determines not to impose a particular sentence after proper consideration and a judge who erroneously treats an available sentencing option as outside the range.
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