Opinion ID: 1427408
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sentencing in the District Court

Text: Defendant was sentenced on July 25, 2007. At sentencing, the District Court determined that the applicable Guidelines range was 360 months' to life imprisonment, [1] but the Court agreed to impose a non-Guidelines sentence, consistent with the recommendation contained in the plea agreement. After considering the testimony of various witnesses and the parties' arguments, the Court stated that it had balance[d] all of those factors, to determine a sentence which is according to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) ... sufficiently long to satisfy the purposes of sentencing, but not overly long. It reviewed each of the factors in turn, along with the evidence it considered most relevant. The Court then announced that it would depart to criminal history category five, offense level 31, [resulting in a sentencing range of] 168 to 210 months. This calculation was based, in part, on a two-level reduction to reflect the then-forthcoming changes in the Sentencing Guidelines for offenses associated with crack cocaine. The District Court explained the basis for the two-level reduction: [T]he reason I do that, quite frankly, is because if the Sentencing Commission were ever to determine that the crack adjustment of two levels was to be applied retroactively, then we would have to come back for a new sentencing, but, in this particular case, I am already taking that into consideration so there would be no need to apply a retroactive application of the adjustment in the guidelines because it basically is a factor. The parties did not raise the specific issue of the Court's discretion to consider the crack-powder cocaine disparity under § 3553(a). The Court did not itself acknowledge its discretion to consider the crack-powder cocaine disparity as a basis for imposing a non-Guidelines sentenceeven though it did recognize that forthcoming changes to the Guidelines somewhat mitigated that disparitynor did it mention any pending cases in which such a theory was pressed, such as Kimbrough v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 558, 169 L.Ed.2d 481 (2007). The Court's only additional comments regarding the weight of crack and the seriousness of the offense were remarks that it was the largest crack cocaine case ... I think I have had in 12 years on the bench. The Court then sentenced defendant principally to a term of 168 months' incarceration, a term below the otherwise applicable Guidelines range but above the mandatory minimum.