U.S. v. Williams

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Criminal Court
Sentencing
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 12-1871
Decision Date: 
September 21, 2012
Federal District: 
S.D. Ill.
Holding: 
Appeal dismissed
Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 188-month term of incarceration on conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine charge under circumstances where Dist. Ct. also found defendant to be career offender. Under sentencing guidelines, career offender sentencing guideline did not apply since defendant’s base offense level was higher in guideline associated with charged offense. Thus,defendant was eligible to use Amendment 706 of sentencing guidelines, which retroactively reduced base offense levels for crack cocaine offenders, to reduce defendant’s base offense level and to support instant sentence, even though defendants found to be career offenders generally would not be entitled to any reduction in offense level under Amendment 706.