United States v. Presley

Presley was convicted of heroin and related gun offenses and of being a felon in possession of a gun. The judge sentenced him to 440 months in prison. Presley argued that, while in a cell near Breedlove, who testified against Presley pursuant to a plea agreement, Presley overheard Breedlove saying things indicating that his testimony had been false. Breedlove had been found to be suffering from a mental disease or defect. A guard at the jail in which Breedlove was held submitted an affidavit stating that Breedlove had admitted to the guard that he had testified falsely against Presley. The judge denied Presley’s motion for a new trial. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding that it was unclear whether Breedlove was mentally incompetent at the time of trial and whether that would have made him incapable of testifying truthfully, and that any error was harmless because of the overwhelming other evidence of Presley’s guilt. The court also upheld the court’s assumption concerning the volume of heroin that Presley was responsible for and the within-guidelines sentence, noting Presley’s lengthy criminal history. If Presley earns maximum possible good-time credit, he will be almost 64 years old when released and then undergo five years of supervised release. The court noted that violent crime is generally a young man’s game and the cost of imprisonment and “invited” the district judge to consider resentencing. View "United States v. Presley" on Justia Law