United States v. Matthews, No. 11-3121 (7th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseAs part of a major interagency effort to combat gang violence and drug trafficking in Racine, Wisconsin, state and federal officers identified Matthews as an “impact player” and used a confidential informant to target him in a series of controlled buys. Matthews sold crack cocaine to the informant on five occasions in 2010. He was indicted on five counts of distributing crack, pleaded guilty to two, and was sentenced to 78 months in prison, the midpoint of the sentencing guidelines range. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, noting that the district court deferred to the 18:1 crack-to-powder sentencing ratio adopted in the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 and rejected an argument for a 1:1 ratio. The judge’s decision to adhere to the ratio endorsed by Congress and the Commission does not make the resulting within-guidelines sentence unreasonable merely because other judges in the district exercised their discretion to use a different ratio. A sentence disparity that results from another judge’s policy disagreement with the guidelines is not “unwarranted” under 18 U.S.C. 3553(a)(6).
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.