United States v. Miller

The defendant pleaded guilty to possessing crack cocaine with intent to sell, i21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment (the bottom of the guidelines range), which was reduced by 20 percent (to 168 months the following year in exchange for cooperation. Four years later, he sought a further reduction, to 134 months, based on Sentencing Guidelines Amendment 782, a retroactive two‐level reduction in the sentencing range. The government acknowledged that the Amendment authorized the 34‐month sentence reduction, but argued that witnesses indicated that the defendant had been at times armed while engaged in his illegal drug dealing, and, during his current imprisonment, had committed five disciplinary infractions. In denying relief, the judge emphasized that the disciplinary infractions had “occurred relatively recently” (most recently three years earlier) and were “serious,” and that the defendant “remains a significant danger to the community.” The Seventh Circuit vacated, noting that the judge did not consider defendant’s positive achievements, such as the reduction in his security classification from high to medium and his completion of vocational and adult‐education courses, which will help him to obtain his GED, erred in describing the defendant’s disciplinary infractions as recent, and did not consider whether the defendant will likely remain a danger to the community when he is released, years from now. View "United States v. Miller" on Justia Law