Due process-precludes-reliance-on-misinformation-at-sentencing

QUESTION PRESENTED Due process precludes a district court from relying on misinformation when sentencing a criminal defendant, requiring instead accuracy and reliability from the information predicating the defendant’s sentence, see, e.g., Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736, 741 (1948) (reliance on materially false information at sentencing violates due process). In the context of issuing a certificate of appealability under 28 U.S.C. §2253, the question here is whether the petitioner’s claim—that due process precludes relying on an advisory Guideline that infects sentencing with misinformation—is reasonably debatable or worthy of further of review after Beckles v. United States, 137 S.Ct. 886 (2017), given that Beckles, holding “only that the advisory Sentencing Guidelines ... are not subject to challenge under the void-forvagueness doctrine,” cautioned against immunizing sentencing from complete scrutiny under the due process clause and specifically identified a Townsend misinformation claim as the type of claim that withstood its narrow holding. -j