Case ID: f-appx_339/html/0148-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "RENDELL, Circuit Judge.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America, Appellant v. John MCLEAN.
    No. 08-2507.
    United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
    Submitted Under Third Circuit LAR 34.1(a) July 13, 2009.
    Filed: July 27, 2009.
    Theodore B. Smith, III, Esq., Office of United States Attorney, Harrisburg, PA, for Appellant.
    James A. Swetz, Esq., Cramer, Swetz & McManus, Stroudsburg, PA, for Defendant-Appellee.
    Before: RENDELL, FUENTES and ROTH, Circuit Judges.
   OPINION OF THE COURT

RENDELL, Circuit Judge.

This appeal raises a single issue: whether a district court may reduce a defendant’s sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2), the statutory provision allowing a court to reduce a sentence which is “based on a sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing Commission,” when that sentence is imposed pursuant to a binding plea agreement. Concluding that enforcement of the stipulated sentence was not required, the District Court reduced defendant John McLean’s sentence; the government appealed. We conclusively resolved the issue in United States v. Sanchez, holding, “If ‘binding’ is to have meaning, it cannot be undone by the discretionary possibility of a different sentence under § 3582(c).” 562 F.3d 275, 282 (3d Cir.2009).

Here, McLean stipulated to the sentence imposed in a binding plea agreement under Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(c)(1)(C), the validity of which is undisputed. Accordingly, we will REVERSE the order of the District Court and REMAND the case. 
      
      . The District Court had jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.