USA v. Bingham, No. 23-2172 (7th Cir. 2023)
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In this case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reviewed the sentencing of Senque Bingham, who had pleaded guilty to drug offenses. Bingham had requested "safety-valve" relief under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) at sentencing, meaning he sought a sentence below the statutory minimum because he met certain criteria, including not having possessed a firearm in connection with his offense. However, the district court found Bingham ineligible for safety-valve relief, because he fulfilled the criteria for a firearms enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(1), which applies if a dangerous weapon was possessed in connection with the offense.
The appellate court found that the district court had erroneously conflated the scope of the safety-valve no-firearms condition with the broader scope of the Sentencing Guidelines firearms enhancement. The court clarified that the safety-valve no-firearms condition is narrower than the firearms enhancement, as the latter may apply even if a co-conspirator's possession of a firearm was reasonably foreseeable to the defendant, but not induced by them. The court held that eligibility for a firearms enhancement does not automatically disqualify a defendant from safety-valve relief.
Because the district court's error in conflating these two provisions could have affected its sentencing decision, the Court of Appeals could not determine whether the error was harmless. Thus, the court vacated Bingham's sentence and remanded the case back to the district court for resentencing.
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