U.S. v. Guerrero

Dist. Ct. erred in finding that defendant could not proceed on his 2018 request for reduction of sentence under Amendment 782 of USSG, where Dist. Ct. had denied similar request in 2015. Record showed that: (1) defendant had filed pro se letter in 2015 seeking appointment of counsel to assist him in obtaining reduction of sentence under Amendment 782; (2) Dist. Ct. converted said request into actual petition seeking said relief and ultimately denied said relief; and (3) Dist. Ct. found that 2018 request for relief under Amendment 782 constituted improper second attempt at obtaining reduction of sentence. Ct. of Appeals found that Dist. Ct. had improperly converted request for counsel to actual petition for relief, where Dist. Ct. had not given defendant notice of its intention to re-characterize his pleading. As such, ruling on 2015 request for appointment of counsel did not constitute first request for relief under Amendment 782, such that defendant could proceed on instant request for reduction of sentence. Ct. further held that Dist. Ct. erred in its rationale of 2015 denial of sentence reduction, where record showed that Dist. Ct. did not leave intact any portion of downward departure of defendant’s original sentence that was unrelated to Amendment 782.