By: Derek Hawkins//June 13, 2017//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: United States of America v. Steven Waldrip
Case No.: 16-2294
Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and KANNE and ROVNER, Cir‐ cuit Judges
Focus: Sentencing – 8th Amendment
A jury convicted Steven Waldrip of distributing heroin under the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Because death resulted from the use of that heroin, Waldrip faced a twenty‐year mandatory‐ minimum sentence. § 841(b)(1)(C). The district court sentenced him to 280 months. On appeal, Waldrip argues that the government provided insufficient evidence to prove that the heroin was a but‐for cause of the victim’s death, that § 841(b)(1)(C) is unconstitutionally vague, and that his 280‐ month sentence violates the Eighth Amendment’s proportionality requirement. We reject those claims.
Affirmed