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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN 

SOUTHERN DIVISION 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff, Criminal No. 15-cr-20077 

v. Hon. Bernard A. Friedman 

SARONTAY DEON BANKS, 

 Defendant. 

______________________________/ 

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING MOTION TO REDUCE SENTENCE 

This matter is before the Court on a motion for sentence reduction filed by 

defendant Sarontay Deon Banks in December 2021. (ECF No. 305).1

 In February 

2022, the Court granted the government’s motion to adjourn the briefing schedule 

pending resolution of an intra-circuit split on relevant caselaw. (ECF No. 310). On 

July 10, 2023, the Court ordered the government to provide a status report in the 

case. (ECF No. 353). The government did so on July 13, 2023. (ECF No. 354). 

Noting that the intra-circuit split has been resolved, the government urges the Court 

to deny the motion. (Id.). The Court invited Banks to respond, (ECF No. 357), but 

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 The heading of this motion also seeks appointment of counsel. (ECF No. 305, 

PageID.1589). Another motion, dated the same day, was also filed solely seeking 

appointment of counsel. (ECF No. 306). The Court has already entered an Order, 

(ECF No. 308), denying Banks’s request for appointment of counsel as presented in 

the stand-alone motion. The same reasoning applies to the one-line request for 

counsel made in the instant motion. 

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the time to do so has passed without any submission from Banks. The Court shall 

decide the motion without a hearing. E.D. Mich. LR 7.1(f). The motion is denied. 

Banks seeks compassionate release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) 

based on a non-retroactive change in sentencing law and his rehabilitation while in 

prison. (ECF No. 305, PageID.1591-96). He urges that he was sentenced as a career 

offender, which roughly doubled his Guidelines range. (Id., PageID.1591-92). 

Banks argues that under United States v. Camp, 903 F.3d 594 (6th Cir. 2018), 

decided months after Banks was sentenced, if he were re-sentenced today his 

conviction for conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery would not qualify as a crime 

of violence for purposes of the Guidelines, he would accordingly not be 

characterized as a career offender, and his sentence would be significantly shorter. 

See (ECF No. 305, PageID.1592-93). Banks further urges that because he was 

sentenced as a career offender, his sentence is significantly longer than that of his 

codefendants. (Id., PageID.1593-94). 

Under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), the Court may reduce a term of 

imprisonment after considering the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) if it finds 

that “extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction.” 

As the government notes in its status report, the Sixth Circuit has now resolved 

an intra-circuit split and “held that nonretroactive legal developments – like the one 

advanced by Mr. Banks – do not factor into the extraordinary and compelling 

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analysis.” (ECF No. 354, PageID.1734) (citing United States v. McCall, 56 F.4th 

1048 (6th Cir. 2022) (en banc)). In United States v. McCall, 56 F.4th 1048 (6th Cir. 

2002) (en banc), the Sixth Circuit clearly stated that “nonretroactive changes in 

sentencing law cannot be ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ that warrant 

relief.” Id. at 1055. Furthermore, the Sixth Circuit reiterated that “[f]ederal 

sentencing law presumes that changes in sentencing law are not retroactive.” Id. 

Banks has offered no argument as to how the Court could permissibly apply Camp 

retroactively, and so the holding of Camp may not be considered an extraordinary 

and compelling reason to justify relief. 

While the Court commends Banks for any effort he has made towards 

rehabilitation, standing alone rehabilitation cannot constitute an extraordinary and 

compelling reason for compassionate release. United States v. West, 70 F.4th 341, 

348 (6th Cir. 2023). Acc ordingly, it is hereby, 

ORDERED that Banks’s motion for sentence reduction (ECF No. 305) is 

DENIED. 

 

SO ORDERED. 

 s/Bernard A. Friedman 

Dated: September 15, 2023 

 Detroit, Michigan 

Bernard A. Friedman 

Senior United States District Judge 

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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

The undersigned certifies that a copy of the foregoing order was served upon each attorney or party of record herein 

by electronic means or first-class U.S. mail on September 15, 2023. 

Sarontay Deon Banks - #50975039 

LEE U.S. PENITENTIARY 

Inmate Mail/Parcels 

P.O. BOX 305 

Jonesville, VA 24263 

s/Johnetta M. Curry-Williams 

Case Manager 

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