United States v. Newman, No. 15-1474 (7th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseMore than 20 years ago, Newman was sentenced to 540 months’ imprisonment for drug offenses, including distributing 40-50 kilograms of cocaine. Congress and the Sentencing Commission have several times reduced permissible sentences for sellers of crack cocaine, but none of the changes affected persons who distributed powder cocaine, until Amendment 782 to the Sentencing Guidelines effected an across-the-board reduction of two offense levels in the drug-quantity table at U.S.S.G. 2D1.1. Because the Sentencing Commission made that change retroactive, 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2) allows district judges to reduce the sentences of persons already in prison. Newman argued ed that his revised sentencing range was 292 to 365 months (the original was 360 months to life), and the prosecutor agreed. The prosecutor recommended a reduction to 472 months, observing that Newman’s criminal history included violence as well as drug sales. The district court initially cut the sentence to 348 months, twice stating that 472 months would be too long, but later rearranged which sentences run concurrently to which others, producing a sentence of 472 months, without explanation. The Seventh Circuit vacated, stating that the court lacked the authority to increase Newman’s sentence by an order entered more than 14 days after December 30, 2014.
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.