Abuse of Discretion – First Step Act Violation

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Gene C. Sutton

Case No.: 19-2009

Officials: FLAUM, SCUDDER, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Abuse of Discretion – First Step Act Violation

Over a decade ago, the district court (then Chief Judge McCuskey) sentenced Gene Sutton to his then statutory minimum 15 years’ imprisonment for distributing cocaine base (“crack”) and carrying a firearm during a drug-trafficking crime. In announcing the sentence, the court emphasized that it had no authority to reduce the sentence further or amend it later, except on the government’s motion, and that the court’s authority had been so limited since the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Pub. L. 98-473, 98 Stat. 1837. “Nobody’s going to change it,” the court told Sutton.

But Congress did change things when it passed the First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391, 132 Stat. 5194. Under § 404 of this new law, a defendant sentenced for a covered offense (which includes Sutton’s crack cocaine charge) may move for the district court to impose a reduced sentence. Sutton submitted his motion seeking relief and the district court, now Judge Shadid, denied it. On Sutton’s pro se appeal, we recruited counsel to submit supplemental briefing on the narrow question of the proper vehicle for a First Step Act motion. In other words, we asked the parties to brief how the First Step Act interacts with the Sentencing Reform Act, which, as Judge McCuskey recognized, generally prohibits a court from modifying a sentence.

We hold that the First Step Act is its own procedural vehicle. The dispute between the parties is, at this point, mostly semantic, though our conclusion does clarify that the only limits on the district court’s authority under the First Step Act come from the interpretation of the First Step Act itself. With that said, this is not the case to explore fully what those limits might be. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion and, therefore, affirm the judgment.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.