The following excerpt is from United States v. Delance, 14-4769(L), 15-118(CON), 15-77(CON) (2nd Cir. 2017):
A sentence is procedurally unreasonable if the district court "fails to calculate the Guidelines range . . . , makes a mistake in its Guidelines calculation, . . . treats the Guidelines as mandatory . . .[,] does not consider the [Section] 3553(a) factors, . . . rests its sentence on a clearly erroneous finding of fact . . . [,] fails adequately to explain its chosen sentence, [or fails to] include an explanation for any deviation from the Guidelines range." United States v. Cavera, 550 F.3d 180, 190 (2d Cir. 2008) (internal quotation marks omitted).
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A sentence is substantively unreasonable and will be set aside "only in exceptional cases where the trial court's decision cannot be located within the range of permissible decisions." United States v. Rigas, 583 F.3d 108, 122 (2d Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). Substantive reasonableness review "provide[s] a backstop for those few cases that, although procedurally correct, would nonetheless damage the administration of justice because the sentence imposed was shockingly high, shockingly low, or otherwise unsupportable as a matter of law." Id. at 123.
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