Plea & Sentencing – Enhancement

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Joseph Perrone v. United States of America

Case No.: 16-2437

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and HAMILTON and BARRETT, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Plea & Sentencing – Enhancement

Terry Learn died after Joseph Perrone injected her with 7.5 grams of cocaine. Perrone pleaded guilty to a single count of unlawful drug distribution and stipulated that his distribution of the cocaine had caused Learn’s death. In accordance with Perrone’s plea agreement, the district court applied a statutory sentencing enhancement that mandates a twenty-year minimum term of imprisonment if unlawful drug distribution results in death. The Supreme Court has since clarified that this provision requires a defendant’s drugs to be a but-for cause of the death, not merely a contributing cause. Perrone filed a petition for relief under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 on the ground that the Court’s narrowed interpretation of the enhancement reveals that he is actually innocent of causing Learn’s death. In addition, he asserts that his counsel was ineffective for failing to advise him of a Seventh Circuit case decided on the day before his sentencing that interpreted the “death results” enhancement the same way that the Court ultimately did. He claims that if he had known that the enhancement required the government to show that his cocaine was the but-for cause of Learn’s death, he would have sought to withdraw his plea. The district court denied Perrone’s petition, and we affirm its judgment.

Affirmed
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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.