Cite as: 519 U. S. 148 (1997)
Stevens, J., dissenting
III
The Court relies principally on three cases—Williams v. New York, 337 U. S. 241 (1949); McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U. S. 79 (1986); and Witte v. United States, 515 U. S. 389 (1995)—to justify its outcome. In each instance, the reliance is misplaced.
For three reasons, Williams cannot support the result in these cases. First, it dealt with the exercise of the sentencing judge's discretion within the range authorized by law, rather than with rules defining the range within which discretion may be exercised. Second, "[t]he accuracy of the statements made by the judge as to appellant's background and past practices was not challenged by appellant or his counsel, nor was the judge asked to disregard any of them or to afford appellant a chance to refute or discredit any of them by cross-examination or otherwise." 337 U. S., at 244. The precise question here—the burden of proof applicable to sentencing facts—was thus not before the Court in that case. Third, its rationale depended largely on agreement with an individualized sentencing regime that is significantly different from the Guidelines system. "Williams was decided in the context of a sentencing 'system that focuse[d] on subjective assessments of rehabilitative potential. . . .' Saltzburg, [Sentencing Procedures: Where Does Responsibility Lie?, 4 Fed. Sent. Rep. 248, 250 (1992)]." United States v. Wise, 976 F. 2d 393, 409 (CA8 1992) (Arnold, C. J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). As this Court has acknowledged, see Burns, 501 U. S., at 132, the Guidelines wrought a dramatic change in sentencing processes, replacing the very system that justified Williams with a rigid system in which, "[f]or most defendants in the federal courts, sentencing is what the case is really about." Wise, 976 F. 2d, at 409.
Even more than Williams, this Court, like all of the Circuits that have adopted the same approach as the District Courts in these cases, relies primarily on the misguided
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