United States v. Hassan Porter, 413 F. App'x 526

Porter appeals his sentence after pleading guilty to one count of escape from federal custody under 18 U.S.C. § 751(a).
He challenges a two-level obstruction of justice enhancement for flight from police and the treatment of two prior sentences for criminal history points.
District Court initially applied a 3C1.1 obstruction enhancement but discussed potential application of 3C1.2 for reckless endangerment during flight.
Porter has a lengthy history, including an escape from Luzerne Community Corrections Center in 2005 and subsequent criminal activity while a fugitive.
Presentence calculations showed a base offense level of 13, with a 2-level enhancement and 19 criminal history points, yielding a Guideline range of 33–41 months.
On appeal, the Third Circuit vacates the sentence and remands for re-sentencing to address the § 3C1.2 nexus issue and to correct the criminal history calculation.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether § 3C1.1 obstruction enhancement was plain error	Porter	Porter	Obstruction enhancement plain error; inapplicable
Whether § 3C1.2 nexus supports a different enhancement	Porter argues no nexus supports § 3C1.2	Porter urges district court to apply 3C1.2 if appropriate	Remand to determine if § 3C1.2 is warranted
Whether criminal history points were calculated correctly	Porter	Porter	Error harmless; correct score lowers to 16 but still Category VI; remand to adjust

United States v. Knight, 266 F.3d 203 (3d Cir. 2001) (plain-error review; higher range affects substantial rights)
United States v. Syme, 276 F.3d 131 (3d Cir. 2001) (relevance of substantial rights in plain-error review)
United States v. Wood, 486 F.3d 781 (3d Cir. 2007) (post-Booker plain-error framework and correction)
United States v. Tomko, 562 F.3d 558 (3d Cir. 2009) (two-stage appellate review of sentencing)
Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (U.S. 2007) (reasonableness standard for sentencing)