In U.S. v. Glover, No. 04-16745 (Nov. 29, 2005), the Court upheld the defendant’s conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, but vacated his sentence for Booker error.
The Court rejected the argument that his statement was obtained in violation of Miranda because he lacked sufficient I.Q. to understand the warnings. The Court noted the police testimony that Glover interacted normally and intelligently with the arresting officers.
The Court also rejected Glover’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence, noting that two witnesses testified that the gun was his.
The Court found that there was Booker error in the sentencing court’s reliance on mandatory Guidelines, and that this error was not harmless. The Court rejected the government’s argument that the error was harmless because the judge imposed sentence in the middle of the Guidelines range. Though recognizing cases in other circuits which took the government’s position, the Court found that the fact of a mid-range sentence did not suffice to meet the government’s heavy burden of showing that a sentence imposed under a then-mandatory system represented harmless error.
