United States v. Brown, No. 10-3441 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this Case
In May 2010 defendant entered a plea of guilty to possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of crack cocaine (21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B)) and two counts of distribution of heroin and crack (21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C)). The offenses occurred in 2007-2009; he was sentenced in October 2010. The district court did not apply the Fair Sentencing Act, Pub. L. 111-220, 124 Stat. 2372 (2010), sentenced him to 292 months imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently, and imposed a $300 mandatory minimum fine for each count. The Seventh Circuit affirmed that the Fair Sentencing Act is not retroactive, but remanded because neither of the statutes under which defendant was sentenced, not the general fine statute, 18 U.S.C. 3571-3574, imposes a mandatory minimum fine. Criminal fines are discretionary, and sentencing courts must consider ability to pay when determining whether to impose any fine .
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.