United States v. Dorsey

n 2008, Dorsey, a convicted drug felon, sold 5.5 grams of crack cocaine. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment, the mandatory minimum under the 1986 Drug Act; the court declined to apply the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), enacted in the interim. In 2012, the Supreme Court vacated Dorsey’s sentence, holding that the FSA’s lower mandatory minimums applied retroactively to the post‐FSA sentencing of pre‐FSA offenders. On remand, the district court reduced Dorsey’s sentence to time served, with eight years of supervised release. Dorsey returned to crack‐cocaine trafficking. In 2014, Dorsey pled guilty to three counts of distribution of crack cocaine, 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1). The court calculated a guidelines range of 262-327 months. Dorsey argued that he should receive a lower sentence because, in the pending revocation proceeding of his prior federal supervised release, the guidelines called for a consecutive sentence. The court sentenced Dorsey to 276 months’ imprisonment. Weeks later Dorsey pled guilty to violating supervised release in the earlier case. The court imposed a sentence of 51 months’ imprisonment, to run concurrently with Dorsey’s 276-month sentence. Dorsey then appealed the 276-month sentence, successfully challenging his supervised‐release conditions. On remand, the court increased Dorsey’s sentence, explaining that at the first sentencing, it had wanted to impose a 327‐month sentence, but had believed Dorsey would receive a 51‐month consecutive sentence in his revocation case. The court imposed a within‐guidelines sentence of 327 months’ imprisonment. The Seventh Circuit rejected his second appeal, in which Dorsey argued that the district judge should have recused himself. The court’s reasoning more than adequately justified Dorsey’s final sentence; there was no procedural error. View "United States v. Dorsey" on Justia Law