What is the impact of a federal district court's error in making an individualized determination as to whether a life sentence was warranted?

Finally, the error seriously affected the fairness of the judicial proceedings below. Instead of making an individualized determination as to whether a life sentence was warranted, the district court imposed a mandatory life sentence based on a statute that did not apply. See Sanchez , 773 F.3d at 39394 (finding that the district courts erroneous determination that a twenty-year mandatory minimum sentence applied seriously affected the fairness of judicial proceedings); see also United States v. Folkes , 622 F.3d 152, 158 (2d Cir. 2010) (per curiam) (finding that the district courts use of a Guidelines range more than twice the correct range seriously affected the fairness of judicial proceedings).