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Sentencing Commission Proposes Drug Table, Meth, Supervised Release Changes – Update for January 27, 2025

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

‘ICE’ MAY BE MELTING

In December, the United States Sentencing Commission announced proposed Sentencing Guidelines amendments for public comment on the sweeping if rather tedious topics of guideline simplification, criminal history, firearm offenses, circuit conflicts and retroactivity. 

drugdealer250127At the time, Sentencing Commission Chairman, Judge Carlton W. Reeves (Southern District of Mississippi) hinted that the USSC could be announcing some additional proposed amendments this month.

Last Friday, the Commission provided an upbeat end to a tough week for federal criminal justice, proposing defendant-friendly amendments to Guidelines on supervised release, the drug quantity tables, and enhanced offense levels for “ice” and pure methamphetamine.

The draft amendments, released for public comment, also propose cracking down on distribution of drugs laced with fentanyl as well as an increased enhancement for packing a machine gun during a drug crime.

The biggest surprise is a proposed change to adopt one of three options, any of which would reduce the top base offense level for drug quantity in the Guidelines. A Guidelines sentence for a drug offender is driven by the weight of the drugs attributed to him or her.  If Tom the Trafficker, with no prior convictions, was involved in a cocaine conspiracy that sold 1,000 lbs of cocaine (10 lbs. a week) over two years – even if he only sold an 8-ball a day five days a week for two years (about 4 lbs) – his Guidelines base offense level would be 38 with a sentencing range starting at 20 years in prison.

The three options the Sentencing Commission is considering would drop the levels in the drug quantity table to Level 30, 32 or 34 instead of the current 38.  At Level 30, our hypothetical Tom would be looking at an advisory sentencing range of 8 years instead of 20.

The Commission said it “has received comment over the years indicating that [Guideline] 2D1.1 overly relies on drug type and quantity as a measure of offense culpability and results in sentences greater than necessary to accomplish the purposes of sentencing.”

meth240618The second proposed amendment would essentially wipe out the drug quantity table’s 10-to-1 focus on meth purity and eliminate any enhanced penalty for crystal meth, known as “ice.” Commission data show that in the last 22 years, the offenses involving meth mixtures has remained steady while the number of offenses involving “meth (actual)” and “ice” have risen substantially. A recent Commission report found that today’s meth is “highly and uniformly pure, with an average purity of 93.2% and a median purity of 98.0%.”

In other words, if all meth is pure, applying the higher base offense level for pure meth becomes the norm rather than the exception. This is a drug-crime equivalent of the Lake Wobegon effect, humorist Garrison Keilor’s representation that in Lake Wobegon, all the children are above average.

The meth purity change could decrease Guideline base offense levels by up to 4.

A note: Judge Reeves, wearing his district court hat instead of USSC hat, wrote a thoughtful opinion two years ago in which he refused to apply the purity enhancement on the same grounds that the Commission cites now as a rationale for changing the Guidelines.

supervisedleash181107The other significant change is to supervised release, which would dramatically reduce the cases in which it is added to the end of a sentence. Among its many changes – focused on making supervised release more about rehabilitation and less about punishment – the proposed amendment would also adopt inmate-friendly standards for early termination of supervised release, making getting off supervised release after a year much easier to do.

The Sentencing Commission proposal says nothing about whether the drug quantity table reduction or meth changes – if they are adopted – would be retroactive. Retroactivity would be decided in a separate proceeding, and the USSC is in the middle of a painful re-evaluation of when and whether retroactivity should be allowed.

For now, the proposed amendments will be out for public comment until March 3, 2025, with reply comments due by March 18, 2025. The Commission will decide what it will adopt as final amendments by May 1, and those will become effective (absent Congressional veto) on November 1, 2025.

US Sentencing Commission, Proposed Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines (Preliminary) (January 24, 2025)

– Thomas L. Root

No Christmas Treats for Prisoners from Sentencing Commission – Update for December 20, 2024

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

SENTENCING COMMISSION ROLLS OUT MINIMALIST 2025 AMENDMENT PROPOSAL

The United States Sentencing Commission yesterday adopted a slate of proposed amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the amendment cycle that will end on or before May 1, 2025, with the adoption of amendments to become effective next November.

Anyone who thought the Commission might roll out a proposal to no longer enhance methamphetamine sentences because of purity – something that US District Judge Carlton Reeves (who is currently chairman of the USSC) ruled from the bench two years ago makes no sense – was disappointed (but see below).

lumpofcoal221215Likewise, any federal prisoners hoping for a resolution to last August’s surprise decision to table retroactivity for four amendments that became effective last fall just found coal in their stockings. The Commission had proposed retroactivity for changes in Guidelines covering acquitted conduct, gun enhancements, Guidelines calculation where a defendant is convicted of an 18 USC § 922(g) felon-in-possession count, a 21 USC § 841 drug trafficking count and a separate 18 USC § 924 gun conviction; and a change in the drug Guidelines to tie mandatory and high base offense levels to statutory maximum sentences instead of more complex factors that inflate sentencing ranges.

Generally, changes in the Guidelines do not apply to people who have already been sentenced, but Guideline 1B1.10 addresses the rare occasions where a Guideline change is retroactive, providing prisoners already sentenced with a chance for a time reduction.

I wrote at the time that the Commission was perhaps responding to criticism heaped on it for adopting amended Guideline 1B1.13(b)(6), which permits judges to grant compassionate release where a prisoner’s sentence could not be imposed today because of changes in the law that occurred after the sentence was imposed. After the Commission adopted the amended 1B1.13 in April 2023, Sens John Kennedy (R-LA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced the Consensus in Sentencing Act (S.4135) to require the Commission to achieve “bipartisan agreement to make major policy changes” by ”requiring that amendments to the Guidelines receive five votes from the Commission’s seven voting members.”

whine160814At the time, Kennedy complained that “[i]n recent years, the Commission has lost its way and begun forcing through amendments on party-line votes.” The Commission has seven voting members. No more than four members can belong to the same political party.

S.4135 never went anywhere, and it will die with the end of the 118th Congress in 10 days or so. Nevertheless, last June, retired US District Judge John Gleeson, a member of the Commission, met with Kennedy and – according to the Senator – “acknowledged the concerns raised about the Commission’s recent practices and confirmed that the Commission will return to making changes on a bipartisan basis.”

“I look forward to seeing the fruits of this commitment,” Kennedy said at the time.

The Commission is now seeking to harvest those fruits by issuing a request that the public comment on whether “it should provide further guidance on how the existing criteria for determining whether an amendment should apply retroactively are applied” and “[i]f so, what should that guidance be? Should it revise or expand the criteria? Are there additional criteria that the Commission should consider beyond those listed in the existing Background Commentary to § 1B1.10?”

The answer to whether there should be additional criteria is self-evident, especially because the same players (except for Rubio, leaving Congress for a position in President-elect Trump’s Cabinet) will be back in the Senate.

usscretro230406What the Commission decides will only partially address the Senators’ principal beef against any USSC proposal that passes on a 4-3 vote (at least until the Republicans again hold a majority on the Commission).

Third Circuit Judge L. Felipe Restrepo’s USSC term expires next October, the earliest chance Trump will have to tip the balance of the Commission to conservative. Given that Trump’s previous nominees to the Commission (never approved by the Senate) included US District Judges Danny Reeves and Henry “Hang ‘em High” Hudson, the likelihood that 4-3 Commission decisions will start looking good to Kennedy, Cruz and the others is fairly high.

Other USSC proposals for the amendment cycle include

• creating an alternative to the “categorical approach” used in the career offender guideline to determine whether a conviction qualifies a defendant for enhanced penalties;

• addressing the guidelines’ treatment of devices designed to convert firearms into fully automatic weapons (Glock switches and drop-in auto sears);

• adding a provision to the use of a stolen gun enhancement that requires that the defendant knew the gun was stolen; and

• resolving a circuit split on whether a traffic ticket in an “intervening arrest” that can serve to bump up criminal history.

Public comments are due by February 3, 2025, with replies due by February 18, 2025.

alicecuriouser230317Curiously, Judge Reeves said, “Over the next month, the Commission will consider whether to publish additional proposals that reflect the public comment, stakeholder input, and feedback from judges that we have received over the last year – including at the roundtables we have held in recent months on drug sentencing and supervised release.”

Whether this is a teaser that changes in the Commission’s approach to meth will be on the table is unclear.

Sentencing Commission meeting video (December 19, 2024)

Sentencing Commission Public Hearing (Video) (August 8, 2024)

Sentencing Commission, Final Priorities for Amendment Cycle (August 8, 2024)

S.4135, Consensus in Sentencing Act

Sen John Kennedy, Kennedy confirms that Sentencing Commission will return to bipartisan agreement for changes to Sentencing Guidelines (June 3, 2024)

USSC, Issue For Comment: Criteria for Selecting Guideline Amendments Covered by §1B1.10 (December 19, 2024)

USSC News Release, U.S. Sentencing Commission Seeks Comment on Proposals to Promote Public Safety And Simplify Federal Sentencing (December 19, 2024)

USSC, Summary of Proposed 2025 Amendments (December 19, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Sentencing Commission’s Sounds of Silence on Retroactivity – Update for August 9, 2024

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

SENTENCING COMMISSION PUTS BRAKES ON RETROACTIVITY

deafeningslience240809In the annals of retroactive U.S. Sentencing Commission guidelines, never has such an ambitious retroactivity agenda yieldzed such… silence.

The USSC is the federal agency responsible for promulgating guidelines for federal judges in imposing criminal sentences. Its proposed amendments to those Guidelines — made in the spring of every year — become part of the Guidelines on November 1 unless Congress steps in to veto some or all of the changes.

A Guidelines change that would reduce a sentencing range does not apply to the sentence of a prisoner who has already been sentenced unless the Commission proposes a change in USSG § 1B1.10, the Guideline governing retroactivity.

Retroactivity doesn’t happen often. In 36 years and over 825 amendments, the USSC has made an amendment retroactive 21 times (under 3% of the time).

retro240506This year, the Commission proposed to make four Guideline changes, in areas of acquitted conduct, gun enhancements, Guidelines calculation where a defendant is convicted of an 18 USC § 922(g) felon-in-possession count, a 21 USC § 841 drug trafficking count , and a separate 18 USC § 924(c) gun conviction; and a change in the drug Guidelines to tie mandatory and high base offense levels to statutory maximum sentences instead of more complex factors that inflate sentencing ranges.

The Commission solicited public comment on the proposed retroactivity and the staff prepared retroactivity impact reports that, among other matters, estimated how many prisoners would be eligible for reduced sentences if retroactivity on each proposal was adopted.

However, at yesterday’s meeting, the Commission tersely declined to vote on the measure. After about 10 minutes of discussion on Commission priorities for the coming year, US District Court Judge Carlton Reeves (SD-MS), chairman of the Commission called for a motion to adopt the retroactivity proposal. His call was met with a deafening silence.

Chairman Reeves was not surprised, the decision to defer retroactivity apparently having been scripted beforehand. He said:

The matter fails for a lack of a motion.

The public tuned in today to hear not only about the commission’s final priorities but also our decision about retroactivity. Our final priorities made clear that we are listening closely to the public’s recommendations about how to do our work. Many have called for the Commission to identify clear principles that will guide its approach to retroactivity. After deep deliberation, we have decided to heed those calls. For that reason, we will not be voting on retroactivity today. Nevertheless, I want to thank all of those who submitted comments and testimony regarding retroactivity for these amendments. Please know that your input has been heard and will continue to be heard as the Commission moves forward.

So what happened?

The best speculation is that the Commission is responding to criticism heaped on it for adopting amended Guideline 1B1.13(b)(6), which permits judges to grant compassionate release where a prisoner’s sentence could not be imposed today because of changes in the law that occurred after the sentence was imposed. Subsection (b)(6) contains a lot of caveats: the prisoner must have served 10 years, the change must have created a substantial disparity between the prisoner’s sentence and current sentences for the same offense, and the inmate’s prison record had better be clean as a whistle.

Nevertheless, after the Commission adopted the amended 1B1.13 containing the new subsection (b)(6), Sen John Kennedy (R-LA), a member of the Judiciary Committee, introduced the Consensus in Sentencing Act (S.4135) to require the Commission to achieve “bipartisan agreement to make major policy changes.” The bill would amend 28 USC § 994(a) to require that amendments to the Guidelines receive five votes from the Commission’s seven voting members.

At the time, Kennedy whined that “[t]he Sentencing Commission for decades strove to achieve bipartisan agreement when adopting amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines. In recent years, the Commission has lost its way and begun forcing through amendments on party-line votes.”

The Commission has seven voting members. No more than four members can belong to the same political party.

Sens Ted Cruz (R-TX), John Cornyn (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) cosponsored S.4135, which is stalled in the Judiciary Committee and has no chance of passage before the 118th Congress expires at the end of the year.

Nevertheless, in June, retired US District Judge John Gleeson, a member of the Commission, met with Kennedy, after which Kennedy said that “Gleeson acknowledged the concerns raised about the Commission’s recent practices and confirmed that the Commission will return to making changes on a bipartisan basis.”
“I look forward to seeing the fruits of this commitment.”

I suspect he just did.

can230407The Commission did not reject retroactivity on the amendments, but its intention to adopt guiding principles for retroactivity pretty much ensures that any decision on making the acquitted conduct and other amendments retroactive has been kicked down the road for a year or better.

Sentencing Commission Public Hearing (Video) (August 8, 2024)

Sentencing Commission, Final Priorities for Amendment Cycle (August 8, 2024)

S.4135, Consensus in Sentencing Act

Sen John Kennedy, Kennedy introduces bill to restore bipartisan decision-making at Sentencing Commission (April 7, 2024)

Sen John Kennedy, Kennedy confirms that Sentencing Commission will return to bipartisan agreement for changes to Sentencing Guidelines (June 3, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Nothing to See Here Anymore,’ BOP Tells Court About FCI Dublin – Update for June 25, 2024

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

But first, a mea culpa…

THOSE PESKY DETAILS

embarrassedLast week, I reported on a U.S. Sentencing Commission methamphetamine study that debunked the idea that there was anything special about meth with purity over 90%, despite the fact that 80% plus pure meth comes with much higher Guideline sentencing ranges.

I reported that the study found that meth tested by the government in fiscal year (FY) 2022 averaged over 90% pure with a median purity of 98%, “measurements dramatically higher than just two years before, when meth purity ranged from 10 to 80%.”

An alert reader questioned my data. It turns out he was correct.

According to the DEA, meth purity ranged from 10% to 80% in the year 2000, NOT 2020. My embarrassment at my error tests out at 100% purity, and I thank my reader for pointing out the mistake.

USSC, Methamphetamine Trafficking Offenses In The Federal Criminal Justice System (June 13, 2024)

‘WE BURIED THE DUBLIN PROBLEM, SO LET’S STOP TALKING ABOUT IT,’ BOP TELLS COURT

The Federal Bureau of Prisons has asked the U.S. District Court in Oakland to dismiss a class action lawsuit demanding systemic changes at FCI Dublin as moot, on the grounds that no one is imprisoned there anymore.

“The injunctive claims addressing conditions of confinement at FCI Dublin—a facility where no inmates are confined—must be dismissed as moot,” the motion filed last Tuesday argues. The plaintiff’s money damages claims, consideration of which have been stayed until August, would remain on file.

The suit was filed last August by female inmates, alleging rampant sexual assault and retaliation by Dublin staff. BOP abruptly shut down the facility in April shortly after Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers appointed a special master to oversee changes at the prison.

paniccrowd240625

The BOP’s motion admits that Dublin was in “dire need of immediate change.” The agency said, “Following its own deliberative process, BOP leadership determined that it needed to close FCI Dublin and transfer all female adults in custody (AICs) to other federal facilities. The transfer process was conducted subject to various court orders and in coordination with the Court’s special master. That process is now complete, and the AICs previously confined at Dublin are now at new facilities. If Dublin is eventually reopened, it will not be used to house female AICs again.”

The Court has described the closure of Dublin as “hasty and chaotic” but the BOP claims it “was carefully planned” and that the Court was privately advised a month before the April 15 mass movement.

A group of Congressional representatives is investigating allegations that the transfers were conducted inhumanely.

Motion to Dismiss, California Coalition for Women Prisoners v, BOP, ECF 326, Case No 4:23-cv-4155 (ND Cal, June 18, 2024)

KQED-TV, Biden Administration Seeks to Dismiss Lawsuit Over Bay Area Women’s Prison Abuses (June 18, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Raising the Bar on Methamphetamine Purity – Update for June 18, 2024

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SENTENCING COMMISSION METH STUDY ACKNOWLEDGES REALITY

reeves230706Ever since U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves (Southern District of Mississippi)—who happens to have a side gig as chairman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission—ruled that these days everybody’s methamphetamine was so pure that the “methamphetamine actual” and “ice” purity enhancement in § 2D1.1 of the Guidelines made no sense, people have been asking me when the USSC is going to catch up with reality and throw out the higher sentencing ranges for 90% pure and higher meth.

I thought that we might have seen it in this year’s proposed amendments, but it didn’t happen. However, a Sentencing Commission study released last week suggests that the Commission may be looking for a change in next year’s amendment cycle.

It’s important, too. Over the past 20 years, meth trafficking offenses have risen by 168%, now accounting for half of all federal drug trafficking cases.

The study found that meth tested in fiscal year (FY) 2022 averaged over 90% pure with a median purity of 98%. Furthermore, the meth was uniformly tested at high purity whether it was classified for sentencing as a meth mixture (91% average purity), meth actual (93%) or ice (98%). These purity averages are dramatically higher than just two years before, back when methamphetamine purity ranged from 10 to 80%.

meth240618Under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(viii) and (B)(viii), it takes ten times as much weight of a meth mixture as it does actual meth or ice to trigger mandatory minimum penalties. So let’s say you’re a criminal newbie caught with a pound of meth of average purity. That would be 458 grams. If you are sentenced for 458 grams of “a mixture containing methamphetamine,” your advisory sentencing range would be 78-97 months. But if the government pushes for sentencing your pound as “methamphetamine actual,” you would have a mandatory minimum sentence of 120 months with a sentencing range topping out at 135 months.

As the late Johnny Cochrane is reputed to have said (at least by South Park) in his fictional but brilliant Chewbacca defense, “That does not make sense.”

chewbacca240618The Commission can change its Guidelines (and likely will in the next year or two), but altering 21 U.S.C. § 841(b) would require Congressional action.

Meth trafficking sentences averaged 91 months in FY 2022, the longest average among major federal drug trafficking offenses, more than fentanyl (65 months) and heroin (66 months). Meth trafficking offenses carried mandatory minimum penalties more often (74%) than all other drug trafficking offenses (57%).

USSC, Methamphetamine Trafficking Offenses In The Federal Criminal Justice System (June 13, 2024)

United States v. Robinson, Case No. 3:21-cr-00014 (S.D.Miss., December 23, 2022)

– Thomas L. Root

USSC Amendments Going Retro? Your Opinion is Wanted – Update for May 6, 2024

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

GUIDELINE AMENDMENT RETROACTIVITY COMMENTS OPEN

retro160110The Sentencing Commission published the 2024 proposed Guideline amendments in the Federal Register last Friday, opening up a public comment period on whether certain proposals should be made retroactive.

The publication of the proposed amendments, a required step in their adoption, provides that the proposed changes are intended to become effective November 1, 2024. The statute authorizing the Sentencing Commission (28 USC § 994) gives Congress the right to override some or all of the changes, a power that has almost never been used in the Guidelines’ 28 years of existence.

The proposed retroactivity would apply to the

• the acquitted conduct amendment (USSG § 1B1.3);

• a change to juvenile sentences that eliminates adding 2 points for prior juvenile incarcerations of more than 60 days;

•  a change to §2K2.1(b)(4)(B)(i) to provide that the 4-level enhancement gun serial number obliteration applies only if the serial number has been modified such the original number “is rendered illegible or unrecognizable to the unaided eye;” and

• a change to Commentary in USSG § 2K2.4 to permit grouping of a § 922(g) gun count with a drug-trafficking count where the defendant has a separate 18 USC § 924(c) conviction based on drug trafficking.

retro240506Comments on retroactivity should be filed by June 21, 2024. Written reply comments, which may only respond to issues raised during the original comment period, should be received not later than July 22, 2024.

Comments may be submitted electronically to the Commission or mailed to

US Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle NE, Suite 2-500
Washington, DC 20002-8002
Attn: Public Affairs—Issue for Comment on Retroactivity.

Sentencing Guidelines, 89 FR 36853 (May 3)

– Thomas L. Root

“And” Really Does Mean “Or” – Update for April 30, 2024

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

CLARITY 1, DEFENDANTS 0

When I reported last week on the Sentencing Commission’s amendment proposals for 2024, I failed to mention its proposed change to the new USSG § 4C1.1, the criminal history guideline for the zero-point reduction.

virgin171201Under § 4C1.1, someone with no criminal history points is still Criminal History Category I but gets a 2-level reduction in his or her offense category. The Guideline has a list of conditions: no guns, no sex crime, no violence, and more. Condition 4C1.1(a)(10) requires that “the defendant did not receive an adjustment under 3B1.1 (Aggravating Role) and was not engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise, as defined in 21 USC § 848.”

If you stayed awake in high school English, you will read this as excluding people from the beneficial reduction if they both got a § 3B1.1 aggravating role and were convicted of an 848 continuing criminal enterprise (shorthand for a drug-based racketeering enterprise). That universe would be populated by a pretty small number of people.

The government naturally has argued to courts that the condition doesn’t mean that at all.  Instead, the government says “and” really means “or.”  That is, if you got a 2-level, 3-level or 4-level enhancement for being either a leader or an organizer or a supervisor or a manager of the criminal activity–the so-called aggravating role adjustment–you could not benefit from the zero-point reduction. Likewise, if you were convicted of a § 848 continuing criminal enterprise–regardless of how you might have been scored for a § 3B1.1 leadership enhancement–you were disqualified.

vanishingpt240430The district courts have largely agreed with the government. We should hardly be surprised. About 18,700 people were sentenced for federal drug offenses in Fiscal Year 2023, but a vanishingly few of those (seven defendants) were convicted under the drug kingpin statute (21 USC § 848).  About 6.3% of the 18,700 sentenced prisoners received a § 3B1.1 aggravating role adjustment (just under 1,200 defendants).   As you can imagine, the intersection of the 1,200 people who got aggravating role adjustments and the seven with § 848 convictions amounts to no more than a rounding error.

What’s more, the Supreme Court just interpreted an “‘and’ means ‘or'” case a month ago, and concluded that in the 18 USC 3553(f) drug “safety valve,” similar stilted language to that employed in Condition 4C1.1(a)(10) should be read so that “and” really is disjunctive, meaning “or.”  See Pulsifer v. United States.

Admitting that the current 4C1.1 condition 10 has created “confusion,” the USSC has now proposed breaking condition 10 into two conditions, so it will read:

(10) the defendant did not receive an adjustment under § 3B1.1 (Aggravating Role) and;

(11) the defendant was not engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise, as defined in 21 USC 848.

and-or240319Like the other proposed amendments, this change is intended to be effective in November.

I apologize for not mentioning this last week. I was too hasty and inattentive.  In this case,  my “and” probably means “or.”

USSC, Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines (Preliminary) (April 17, 2024)

USSC, FY 2023 Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics

Pulsifer v. United States, 144 S.Ct. 718, 218 L,Ed,2d 77, 2024 U.S. LEXIS 1215 (March 15, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

Sentencing Commission Announces Slate of Fall Amendments – Update for April 22, 2024

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

SENTENCING COMMISSION TAKES A WHACK AT ACQUITTED CONDUCT

The US Sentencing Commission last week adopted a slate of proposed amendments to the Guidelines, finally addressing the acquitted conduct issue that has bedeviled the Commission and Supreme Court for the past two years.

can230407SCOTUS sidestepped the question last year, sitting on 13 certiorari petitions raising the question of whether sentencing for acquitted conduct – that is, conduct for which a defendant has been found not guilty by a jury – is constitutional. At the prodding of the Dept of Justice – which told the Supremes that they should let the Sentencing Commission handle it only to then tell the Sentencing Commission it lacked the power to do so – SCOTUS finally denied the cert petitions last July, with several justices saying they would wait for the Sentencing Commission to address the issue.

The acquitted conduct Guidelines amendment will redefine “relevant conduct” under USSG § 1B1.3 to exclude conduct for which a defendant was acquitted in federal court. Because judges must rely on “relevant conduct” to set the Guidelines sentencing range, the change is significant.

For example, if a defendant is convicted of distributing cocaine but acquitted of selling heroin, the amount of heroin that the government said he had sold currently be factored into his Guidelines range as long as the judge found it more likely than not that he had actually sold it. The proposed amendment would prohibit counting the heroin regardless of whether the judge thought the defendant had done it or not.

“Not guilty means not guilty,” Sentencing Commission Chairman Judge Carlton W. Reeves, who sits on the Southern District of Mississippi bench, said. “By enshrining this basic fact within the federal sentencing guidelines, the Commission is taking an important step to protect the credibility of our courts and criminal justice system.”

reeves230706Commissioners were divided on whether to consider enforcing the acquitted conduct sentencing amendment retroactively. A majority voted to have the USSC staff prepare a retroactivity impact analysis, which is the initial step toward making an amendment retroactive.

Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said in a press release, applauded the Commission’s vote, noting that it came after he and Sen Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced the Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2023. The legislation would have prohibited judges from using conduct acquitted by a jury. The measure has not gained consideration the full Senate.

The Commission is allowed to grant retroactivity – which lets people already sentenced according to Guidelines that are now being amended go back to court to secure the benefit of the amendment in the form of a reduced sentence – on new defendant-friendly amendments. Ratroactivity on last fall’s criminal history amendments was vigorously opposed by some commissioners and the DOJ, which has an ex officio representative on the Commission. This time around, the Commission is considering whether to make multiple defendant-friendly changes retroactive:

• the acquitted conduct amendment;

• a change to juvenile sentences that eliminates adding 2 points for prior juvenile incarcerations of more than 60 days;

• a change to §2K2.1(b)(4)(B)(i) to provide that the 4-level enhancement gun serial number obliteration applies only if the serial number has been modified such the original number is “is rendered illegible or unrecognizable to the unaided eye;” and

• a change to Commentary in §2K2.4 to permit grouping of 922(g) gun count with drug trafficking count where the defendant has a separate 18 USC 924(c) conviction based on drug trafficking.

During the retroactivity vote, Commissioner Claire Murray – a former Trump administration DOJ official – made the obvious point that judges may also still rely on acquitted conduct at sentencing when considering the § 3553(a) sentencing factors, including the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant, which courts must consider at sentencing, regardless of the Guidelines advisory sentencing range.

The bad news in the amendments was pretty much expected. For economic crimes, the recommended sentence under the guidelines increases dramatically as the amount of loss resulting from the offense increases.

shakeitoff240423As it is now written, the loss is defined in the Guidelines commentary as the higher of actual loss or intended loss. If you try to steal the Hope Diamond from the Smithsonian (value $250 million) but only get a rhinestone imitation (value $250) because the real one had been rented out to Taylor Swift for the weekend, the Smithsonian’s actual loss would be just a few bucks, but the intended loss would be a quarter billion.

In 2022, the 3rd Circuit held in United States v. Banks that the Commentary expanded the definition of loss beyond the ordinary meaning of “actual loss,” and thus, “intended loss” could not be used to set a defendant’s Guidelines. The new loss amendment moves the commentary section into the actual guideline, making sure that intended loss is included in setting the Guideline sentencing range and allowing the use of gain from the offense as a substitute for loss.

Whether the changes will become retroactive depends in part on USSC data on how many prisoners would be eligible for a reduction. If the number is too high, the Commission becomes concerned that the courts will be overwhelmed with reduction motions.

Finally, unhappy that the Commission last year adopted a new compassionate release guideline and made the criminal history guidelines retroactive on a 4-3 vote, Sen John Kennedy (R-LA) last week introduced the Consensus in Sentencing Act to require that changes to the Guidelines get at least five votes out of the seven Commissioners.

Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman, writing in his Sentencing Law and Policy blog, said it “cannot be pure coincidence” that Kennedy introduced the bill the day before last week’s USSC meeting. The bill stands little chance of passing before Congress expires at the end of the year.

Reuters, US panel prohibits judges from sentencing for ‘acquitted conduct’ (April 17, 2024)

Law360, Sentencing Commission Limits Acquitted Conduct Sentencing (April 17, 2024) 

Press release, Durbin Applauds Sentencing Commission’s Unanimous Vote To Prohibit Acquitted Conduct From Being Used In Sentencing Guidelines (April 18, 2024)

Sentencing Law and Policy, Senator Kennedy introduces “Consensus in Sentencing Act” to increase USSC votes needed for guideline amendments (April 16, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root

“Their Verdict Didn’t Matter”: Taming the ‘Acquitted Conduct’ Sentencing Monster – Update for March 8, 2024

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

ACQUITTED CONDUCT ISSUE ARRIVES WITH A LOT OF BAGGAGE

The U.S. Sentencing Commission completed two days of hearings yesterday on what, if anything, it should do to rein in “acquitted conduct” sentencing, the Guidelines- and Supreme Court-sanctioned practice of relying on evidence that a defendant committed a crime even if a jury had found him or her not guilty of that offense.

acquitted240308Jessie Ailsworth knows what that feels like. During this week’s hearings, he told the Commission he felt relieved when he heard the jury return 28 “not guilty” verdicts in his 1996 trial for crack cocaine distribution. But Jessie said “fairness went out the window” when he got hammered with 30 years for the seven counts on which he was found guilty.

The judge based Jessie’s sentence on all of the counts in the indictment, including the 28 acquitted counts.

“I was very angry for a long time,” Jessie told the Commission. “I felt like the system failed me. I really believe that the jury did their best. They took their time, wrote notes, asked questions, and reached their verdicts. But, when I was sentenced, the court sent me to prison based on the jury’s acquittals. I felt like the system didn’t just fail me, it also failed my jury. We all knew what the jury was trying to do, and when I was sentenced, I wondered why we had even spent all those days with the jury, if at the end of it all, their verdict didn’t matter.”

Jessie was one of 15 witnesses testifying over the two days. Others included judges, probation officers and advocates. Judge Deborah Cook of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals drew a distinction between “the important distinction in the proof necessary for convicting versus sentencing… That is, so long as the defendant receives a sentence at or below the statutory maximum set by the jury’s verdict, the district court does not abridge [a] defendant’s right to jury by looking to other facts, including acquitted conduct, when sentencing within that statutory range.”

Proof140424Ohio State University law professor Doug Berman, writing in his Sentencing Policy and the Law blog yesterday, explained how the question is stickier than either Jessie or Judge Cook might think. Prof Berman wrote that “rights directed at a balanced and thorough process — in other words, rights that support accuracy concerns or that tend to put the prosecution and defense on a more even playing field — do apply at sentencing. Rights that offer the defendant special protections — such as those that automatically resolve errors in the defendant’s favor or primarily protect the defendant’s autonomy — do not apply at sentencing. Framed only a bit differently, one might see concerns for sentencing “accuracy” to be a kind of Crime Control concern, and one that would counsel against preventing judicial consideration of acquitted conduct. But the jury trial right is fundamental to our nation’s vision of Due Process and our commitment to “defendant special protections,” and that’s surely why many are troubled by any judicial sentencing process that functionally disregards a jury’s decision to acquit on certain charges.”

Prof Berman suggests (without endorsing this outcome) that if factual accuracy is paramount at sentencing, the judge will consider acquitted conduct in all its glory. This, of course, is a slippery slope. How about evidence that the judge suppressed and the jury thus never heard? How about proffers (attorneys telling the judge what their witnesses would have said if allowed to testify)?

If due process (protecting a defendant’s rights) is the correct model, then a jury’s acquittal on any particular count is ‘game, set, match’ for sentencing. This is at the expense of accuracy and the core legal principle, first enunciated by Marcus Tullius Cicero two millennia ago, to “let the punishment fit the crime.”

The “due process” model, too, is a slippery slope. After all, “acquitted conduct” sentencing is only a concern in the 2-3% of federal prosecutions that actually go to trial. We’re talking about elephants when the issue should be all animals that are not elephants. For the overwhelming 97% of cases in which the defendant pleads guilty, the Guidelines permit sentencing on “related conduct.” Related conduct can be found by the court only by a fairly squishy “preponderance of the evidence” standard, and the government may meet that standard with hearsay evidence and fuzzy math from witnesses the defendant has no right to confront. In drug and fraud prosecutions especially, where the amount of drugs or amount of loss drives the Guidelines sentencing range, a “due process” model should demand that standards for determining facts at sentencing provide the same “reasonable doubt” and 6th Amendment right of confrontation that a defendant enjoys during the conviction phase.

Prof Berman observed that as he watched the Commission’s hearing “explore[] many of the devilish details, it was clear how acquitted conduct’s intricacies may largely explain why past Commissions have avoided these issues as a policy matter and why the US Supreme Court avoided these issues as a constitutional matter since its 1997 Watts decision.”

can230407Speaking at a symposium at Ohio State last Monday, Judge Carlton Reeves, chairman of the Sentencing Commission, said that the Commission took up acquitted conduct “out of deference to the Supreme Court” after it denied certiorari in McClinton v. United States and said, “Well maybe the Sentencing Commission ought to look at it.”

Earlier, in a Sentencing Commission news release, Judge Reeves said, “When the Supreme Court tells us to address an issue, the commission listens. From continuing the use of acquitted conduct to restricting (or even eliminating) its use in sentencing, all options are on the table.

Sentencing Commission, Public Hearing on Acquitted Conduct (March 6-7)

Sentencing Policy and the Law, USSC hearings on acquitted conduct: the devilish details amid a fundamental criminal process debate (March 6)

Kansas Reflector, Kansas man says prison sentence based on acquitted conduct was ‘ultimate betrayal’ (March 6)

– Thomas L. Root

DOJ Speaks With Forked Tongue… Again – LISA Update for February 4, 2024

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

COURTS STARTING TO REJECT DOJ’S ATTACK ON NEW COMPASSIONATE RELEASE GUIDELINE

You may remember the old Dept of Justice bait-and-switch a year ago. DOJ told the Supreme Court that it shouldn’t grant review of acquitted conduct petitions because the Sentencing Commission was going to address the issue. Then, less than a month later, DOJ filed comments telling the Sentencing Commission that it lacked the authority to address acquitted conduct at all.

The DOJ’s at it again. Before the Sentencing Commission adopted a new USSG § 1B1.13 – the compassionate release guideline that became effective last November – there was a circuit split on whether a long sentence that was mandatory before the First Step Act passed but could no longer be imposed after First Step passed could constitute an extraordinary and compelling reason for a sentence reduction.

(This difference in sentence length depending on when the sentence was imposed is called “temporal disparity”).

Six circuits said temporal disparity could never be extraordinary and compelling. Five circuits said it could. The government opposed certiorari petitions in a number of cases that asked the Supreme Court to resolve the issue. The government told SCOTUS that the issue should be addressed by the Sentencing Commission, not the Court.

Now the Sentencing Commission has addressed it, directing in § 1B1.13(b)(6) that temporal disparity can be extraordinary and compelling if the inmate has done 10 years, if there’s a great sentence disparity, and if the inmate has a good prison record.

thereyougo240205What is the DOJ’s response to that? It has filed oppositions all around the country, arguing that the Sentencing Commission’s (b)(6) guideline exceeded its statutory authority and is invalid. As Ronald Reagan used to say to Jimmy Carter, “There you go again…”

The government’s cookie-cutter oppositions are now being decided. A late November Southern District of Indiana decision in United States v. Jackson held that 7th Circuit precedent holds that the statutory definition of ‘extraordinary’ does not extend to temporal disparity, “which means there is a question about whether the Sentencing Commission exceeded its authority when it added this item to the list of potentially extraordinary and compelling reasons warranting a sentence reduction…” But because the defendant didn’t meet the 10-year minimum sentence required for a compassionate release under (b)(6), the court did not rule on its “question.”

In United States v. Carter, an Eastern District of Pennsylvania decision from three weeks ago, the district court ruled that the 3rd Circuit’s 2021 United States v. Andrews decision, which held a change in the law could never be an extraordinary and compelling reason for compassionate release “forecloses Carter’s argument that he is eligible… 1B1.13(b)(6) states that an ‘unusually long sentence’ may be deemed an extraordinary and compelling reason’ warranting compassionate release… That provision… is incompatible with Andrews…”

Two thoughtful decisions issued last week clash with Carter’s holding and Jackson’s implication.

In United States v. Capps, an Eastern District of Missouri court rejected the government’s argument that because First Step did not make changes in 18 USC § 924(c) and 21 USC § 841(b) retroactive, the Sentencing Commission cannot do so, either. “Congress is not shy about placing sentencing modification limits where it deems them appropriate,” the Capps court said. “Congress broadly empowered and directed the Commission to issue binding guidance as to what circumstances qualify for potential reduction. Nothing in the statute’s text prohibits the Commission from considering nonretroactive changes in the law as extraordinary and compelling reasons for a sentence reduction. The absence of any such limitation is telling.”

The best repudiation of the government’s attempt to strip § 1B1.13(b)(6) of legitimacy came last Thursday. In United States v. Padgett, a Northern District of Florida district court ruled that making temporal disparity an “extraordinary and compelling” reason for compassionate release was exactly the kind of decision Congress intended the Commission to make.

toofar240205“The government acknowledges that Congress directed the Commission to address the meaning of extraordinary and compelling,” the district court said. “But the government asserts the Commission went too far, because, the government says, a temporal disparity, no matter how great or how unusual, can never provide an extraordinary and compelling reason for a sentence reduction.”

The Court ruled:

The very fact that the circuits split on this issue suggests the meaning of ‘extraordinary and compelling’ is not as clear as the government now asserts. Instead, this is precisely the kind of issue Congress called on the Commission to resolve. Indeed, in United States v. Bryant… the 11th Circuit held binding the Sentencing Commission’s prior policy statement on this very issue, emphatically explaining that Congress left it to the Sentencing Commission to define ‘extraordinary and compelling,’ subject only to the requirement that rehabilitation alone is not enough. The Bryant court said relying on the Commission promotes uniformity, thus minimizes unwarranted sentence disparity, and that defining these terms is ‘not a task that the statute allocates to courts… A district court’s job is ‘simply’ to apply the Commission’s policy statements and, as required by the statute, consider the 3553(a) sentencing factors in deciding whether to reduce an eligible defendant’s sentence.

There is little doubt that the government or a defendant will fight this to the Supreme Court. For now, the proper application of the temporal disparity compassionate release guideline will be as random as it ever was before the new § 1B1.13.

United States v. Jackson, 2023 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 208272 (S.D. Ind, November 21, 2023)

United States v. Carter, 2024 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 6504 (E.D. Pa., January 12, 2024)

United States v. Capps, Case No 1:11cr108 (E.D. Mo., January 31, 2024)

United States v. Padgett, Case No 5:06cr13 (N.D. Fla., January 30, 2024)

– Thomas L. Root