Elion v. U.S.

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant’s habeas petition that challenged his 167-month sentence on drug distribution charge, where defendant alleged that his trial counsel was ineffective for failing to challenge sentencing court’s determination that he qualified for career offender treatment under section 4B1.1 of USSG, based, in part, on his two Illinois convictions for unlawful delivery of look-alike substances. While Dist. Ct. found that defendant was properly sentenced as career offender, Ct. of Appeals found that both convictions did not qualify as section 4B1.1(a) predicate offenses for career offender purposes, because relevant Illinois statutes punished conduct more broadly than Guidelines controlled substance offense. As such, defendant should not have been sentenced as career offender, and remand was required to determine his ineffective assistance of counsel claim.