We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

UNDOING A SENTENCE PACKAGE IS UP TO DISTRICT COURT

Jim Troiano was sentenced concurrently to 17 years on three counts, one of which was a felon-in-possession enhanced under the Armed Career Criminal Act. After the Supreme Court decision in Johnson v. United States, he got the ACCA sentence vacated, but the district court refused to resentence on the other two counts. Jim’s sentence remained at 17 years (plus seven more for an 18 USC 924(c) conviction).

Jim appealed, arguing that his sentence was a “package,” and the district court could not change the sentence on just one count without resentencing on all of the counts and giving him a lesser aggregate sentence. Last week, the 9th Circuit disagreed. It said in a resentencing, the decision to unbundle a sentencing package – that is, to conduct a full resentencing on all remaining counts of conviction when one or more counts of a multi-count conviction are undone – rests within the sound discretion of the district court.

Troiano v. United States, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 8596 (9th Cir. Mar. 22, 2019)

– Thomas L. Root