United States v. Garcon, No. 19-14650 (11th Cir. 2021)
Annotate this Case
Garcon pleaded guilty to attempted possession of 500 grams or more of cocaine with intent to distribute. Garcon faced a five-year statutory minimum sentence. His PSR recommended a three-point reduction for timely acceptance of responsibility and noted a previous three-point offense for possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Garcon's Guidelines sentence range was 41–51 months but because of the five-year statutory minimum, the term was 60 months. The district court found Garcon eligible for the safety valve provision, 18 U.S.C. 3553(f) because he had less than four criminal history points and did not have a prior two-point violent offense.
The Eleventh Circuit vacated. Under the First Step Act's "safety valve," district courts “shall” sentence certain convicted drug offenders with little or no criminal history according to the Sentencing Guidelines “without regard to any statutory mandatory minimum sentence.” A defendant convicted of a specified drug offense is eligible for safety valve relief only if: (1) the defendant does not have— (A) more than 4 criminal history points, excluding any criminal history points resulting from a 1-point offense, as determined under the sentencing guidelines; (B) a prior 3-point offense, as determined under the guidelines; and (C) a prior 2-point violent offense, as determined under the guidelines. Section 3553(f)(1) is written in the disjunctive. Garcon is ineligible because he met one of the three disqualifying criteria with his prior three-point conviction.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on January 21, 2022.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on December 6, 2022.
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.