United States v. Turner, No. 20-2421 (7th Cir. 2021)
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In each of two consolidated cases, a prisoner seeking a shorter sentence filed, within the time allowed for appeal, a motion asking the district judge to reconsider an adverse decision under the First Step Act of 2018. Each notice of appeal was filed within 14 days of the decision on the motion to reconsider but more than 14 days after the original decision.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed the denial of the motions after declining to dismiss the appeals. A motion to reconsider a decision under the First Step Act suspends the decision’s finality and extends the time for appeal. The prisoners are not appealing from the imposition of their sentences but are invoking the First Step Act, which authorizes the reduction of a sentence long after the time allowed for appeal. Any prisoner serving a sentence for a covered crack-cocaine offense is entitled to ask a judge to treat him as if the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 had been in force on the date of his original sentence. Resolution of a motion under a retroactive guideline is not a form of full sentencing; the procedures applicable to initial sentences do not govern. The court rejected the petitions on the merits, citing one prisoner’s plea bargain and prior felony conviction and noting that the other prisoner’s mandatory life sentence had already been commuted to 30 years’ imprisonment.
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