U.S. v. Blake

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant’s motion to reduce his 420-month term of incarceration on conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine conviction, where defendant based said motion on section 404(b) of First Step Act of 2018. Dist. Ct. committed reversible procedural error by failing to resolve parties’ dispute about quantity of drugs attributable to defendant for sentencing purposes, such that Dist. Ct. never determined applicable Sentencing Guideline range for defendant prior to resolving instant sentence reduction request. Ct. rejected government’s argument that any error was harmless, even though there was some evidence that defendant was responsible for over 2.8 kilograms of crack, which would support existing Sentencing Guideline range, since: (1) Supreme Court in Peugh, 569 U.S. 530, emphasized that Dist. Ct. must first determine applicable Sentencing Guideline range; and (2) record contained possibility that Dist. Ct. must use lower drug quantity, i. e., 500 grams of crack cocaine, where government had stipulated to said amount in plea agreement with co-defendant.