United States v. Ortiz-Vega, No. 12-1482 (3d Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseVega pled guilty to multiple counts of crack cocaine possession and distribution, and to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. In 2004, the district court sentenced him to 108 months imprisonment on the drug charges and a mandatory 60 months, to be served consecutively, on the firearm count. The Sentencing Guidelines called for 97-121 months on the drug charges; the gun offense carried a mandatory consecutive sentence of 60 months, 18 U.S.C. 24(c)(1)(A)(I). At the time, the drug charges also carried a mandatory minimum penalty of 120 months, 21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)(A)(iii). This ought to have led to a range of 120-121 months, but the mandatory minimum was not requested by the government. In 2010, the Fair Sentencing Act lowered mandatory minimum penalties for distributing crack cocaine. Under the new guideline (made retroactive, effective November, 2011), the offense level for Vega’s drug offenses would be 30. With relevant adjustments already established, this would lead to a Guideline range of 78-97 months rather than 97-121 months. The district court found that sentence reduction was blocked by operation of the 120 month mandatory minimum sentence that should have been, but was not, applied to his case. The Third Circuit reversed, acknowledging that the case presented an interaction of complex statutes, policy statements, and confused prior proceedings, creating a difficult, perhaps unique, pattern.
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