United States v. Alston, No. 11-5204 (4th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseThe district court resentenced defendant, who pleaded guilty to possession of five grams or more of crack cocaine and to maintaining a dwelling for the use of cocaine, to an above-Guidelines sentence of 120 months' imprisonment and defendant appealed. The court concluded that the district court correctly determined that the mandate rule did not preclude it from considering the government's renewed U.S.S.G. 4A1.3 upward departure motion; while the district court erred in concluding that the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), 21 U.S.C. 841, did not apply retroactively, that error was harmless as demonstrated by the district court's statements at sentencing; and defendant's sentence was substantively reasonable where the district court did not base the length of his sentence on his rehabilitative needs. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
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