USA v. Ahmad Bishawi, No. 13-2753 (7th Cir. 2013)

Annotate this Case
Download PDF
2 1 NONPRECEDENTIAL DISPOSITION To be cited only in accordance with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit Chicago, Illinois 60604 Submitted November 8, 2013 Decided November 14, 2013 Before WILLIAM J. BAUER, Circuit Judge FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge DANIEL A. MANION, Circuit Judge No. 13-2753 Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 97-CR-40044-MJR-01 v. Michael J. Reagan, Judge. AHMAD BISHAWI, Defendant-Appellant. Order Ahmad Bishawi is serving a sentence of 20 years imprisonment for crack-cocaine offenses. After the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 took effect, and the Sentencing Commission reduced the Guideline ranges with retroactive effect, Bishawi asked the district court for a reduction under 18 U.S.C. §3582(c)(2). The district court denied this This successive appeal has been submitted to the original panel under Operating Procedure 6(b). After examining the briefs and the record, we have concluded that oral argument is unnecessary. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a); Cir. R. 34(f). No. 13-2753 Page 2 motion because Bishawi s sentence already is at the statutory minimum, so he cannot receive any benefit from the lower Guidelines. Bishawi s brief on appeal appears to reflect a belief that all defendants sentenced before the 2010 Act took effect can be resentenced afterward because only a new sentence under the Act s revised terms would reduce the statutory minimum sentence. But the Supreme Court held in Dorsey v. United States, 132 S. Ct. 2321 (2012), that the 2010 Act applies only to persons sentenced on or after August 3, 2010. Bishawi was sentenced in 1999. A motion under §3582(c)(2) differs from resentencing. See Dillon v. United States, 560 U.S. 917 (2010). Nor does it entitle a defendant to reopen issues, such as the quantity of drugs involved, resolved at the original sentencing. See, e.g., United States v. Poole, 550 F.3d 676 (7th Cir. 2008). We have therefore held that persons who received a statutory-minimum sentence before August 3, 2010, cannot receive any benefit from the 2010 Act. United States v. Foster, 706 F.3d 887 (7th Cir. 2013). Foster and Poole control this appeal. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

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.