United States v. McCarroll

By age 20, McCarroll was running an extensive conspiracy involving the sale of heroin in McCarroll’s southside housing project. A jury found McCarroll guilty of multiple drug-related crimes. At McCarroll’s sentencing in 1996, the district court found him responsible for distributing over 75 kilograms of heroin, giving him a base offense level of 38, and applied a 4-level increase for his leadership role, resulting in a total offense level of 42. Combined with a criminal history category of III, McCarroll’s total offense level yielded a guidelines range of 360 months to life, and the court sentenced him to 396 months’ imprisonment. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. He moved under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2) for a reduced sentence based on Amendments 782 and 788 to the sentencing guidelines, which retroactively lowered by two the base offense level for his drug crimes. The court denied McCarroll’s motion, stating that U.S.S.G. 1B1.10 makes clear that a defendant is ineligible for a sentence reduction if a retroactive amendment does not lower the defendant’s guidelines range. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting McCarroll’s argument that a “’sentencing range’ and ‘guideline range’ are not necessarily the same.” The court characterized the argument as frivolous. View "United States v. McCarroll" on Justia Law