United States v. Watts, 519 U.S. 148, 15 (1997) (per curiam)

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162

UNITED STATES v. WATTS

Stevens, J., dissenting

ment that for any sentence of imprisonment in the Guidelines, "the maximum of the range established for such a term shall not exceed the minimum of that range by more than the greater of 25 percent or 6 months," 28 U. S. C. § 994(b)(2). The determination of which of these narrow ranges a particular sentence should fall into is made by operation of mandatory rules, but within the particular range, the judge retains broad discretion to set a particular sentence.

By their own terms, the Guidelines incorporate the broadly inclusive language of § 3661 only into those portions of the sentencing decision in which the judge retains discretion.

United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual § 1B1.4 (Nov. 1995) (USSG) provides:

"In determining the sentence to impose within the guideline range, or whether a departure from the guidelines is warranted, the court may consider, without limitation, any information concerning the background, character and conduct of the defendant, unless otherwise prohibited by law. See 18 U. S. C. § 3661."

Thus, as in the pre-Guidelines sentencing regime, it is in the area in which the judge exercises discretion that § 3661 authorizes unlimited access to information concerning the background, character, and conduct of the defendant. When the judge is exercising such discretion, I agree that he or she may consider otherwise inadmissible evidence, including evidence adduced in a trial that resulted in an acquittal. But that practice, enshrined in § 3661 and USSG § 1B1.4, sheds little, if any, light on the appropriateness of the District Courts' application of USSG § 1B1.3, which defines relevant conduct for the purposes of determining the Guidelines range within which a sentence can be imposed.

II

The issue of law raised by the sentencing of Cheryl Putra involved the identification of the offense level that deter-

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