United States v. Bailey, No. 14-3823 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pled guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute cocaine base. Subsequently, the United States Sentencing Commission reduced the drug quantity base offense levels by two (Amendment 782). The district court denied defendant's motion to reduce the sentence pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2). In Freeman v. United States, the Supreme Court addressed whether a sentence imposed under a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement can be reduced under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2). In this case, Justice Sotomayor's concurring opinion in Freeman is controlling. Applying Freeman, the court concluded that defendant's plea agreement clearly fails to fit the first category of cases that Justice Sotomayor determined are "based on" the Guidelines - the plea agreement does not expressly use a particular Guidelines sentencing range. Therefore, defendant is not entitled to a sentence reduction under Amendment 782 and the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Per Curiam - Before Murphy, Smith and Benton, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. Applying Justice Sotomayor's concurring opinion in Freeman v. United States, 131 S. Ct. 2685 (2011), defendant's plea agreement was not "based on" a guidelines range, and, as a result, defendant is not entitled to a sentence reduction under Amendment 782.
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