Pleas & Sentencing

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Derrick R. Clinton

Case No.: 15-1346

Officials: ROVNER and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges, and SHAH, District Judge

Focus: Pleas & Sentencing

Court erred in failing to address health problems as a mitigating factor warranting a decreased sentence.

“The record thus provides little support for such an enhancement. We do not hold that the enhancement is inapplicable as a matter of law, but the fact findings in this record do not support the enhancement. The district court identified only the generalized need for protection by those engaged in drug offenses. But that would apply whenever a person who sold drugs also possessed a firearm in the residence. It would transform the “close proximity” test of Application Note 14 to a broad‐based rebuttable presumption that the enhancement applied whenever a firearm was possessed and a drug offense was also alleged regardless of the location of the firearm and its proximity to the drugs. The Sentencing Commission could have imposed an enhancement if any weapon was possessed without requiring that it be possessed in connection with the offense, but it chose not to do so. See United States v. Carillo‐Ayala, 713 F.3d 82, 89‐90 (11th Cir. 2013)(comparing the provision in § 2D1.1(b)(1) requiring only that a weapon was possessed with the requirement under § 5C1.2(a)(2) that the firearm was possessed in connection with the offense).Because the court’s findings are insufficient to support application of the four‐level enhancement, that determination is vacated and the case must be remanded for resentencing.”

Vacated and Remanded for Resentencing

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.