United States v. Williams, No. 19-1753 (8th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to reduce his sentence under the First Step Act, holding that section 404 of the Act does not require a hearing on the motion. Therefore, the district court can conduct a complete review without a hearing, as the district court did in this case. The court also held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by improperly weighing the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors. Rather, the district court considered defendant's post sentence rehabilitation and arguments for a sentence reduction, and had a reasoned basis for rejecting them.
Court Description: Benton, Author, with Gruender and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - First Step Act. Section 404 of the First Step Act did not require a hearing on Williams' motion to reduce his sentence; the court did not abuse its discretion as it considered Williams' post-sentence rehabilitation and decided not reduce to reduce his sentence on that basis; the court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion, as it considered Williams' arguments for a sentence reduction and had a reasoned basis for rejecting them.
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.