Donald Covington v. United States
Punishment
Did the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit err in denying the Petitioner the ability to have his substantive constitutional, statutory, and other legal claims addressed?
QUESTIONS PRESENTED Did the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit err in granting the government’s motion to dismiss by denying the Petitioner the ability to have his substantive constitutional, statutory, and other legal claims addressed, such constitutional, statutory, and other legal claims being of such a fundamental nature that grave injustice will result to Petitioner and similarly situated incarcerated persons if these claims are not addressed? Whether the law should be extended and/or modified to hold that United States Sentencing Guideline § 4B1.2 was unconstitutionally applied in this case due to it being the cause of Petitioner’s resentencing. Whether the law should be extended and/or modified to hold that the district court abused its discretion in finding that a sentence of seventy-seven (77) months was reasonable under the circumstances pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Whether the district court’s imposition of two mandatory “special assessments” pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3013 violated the Petitioner’s Eight Amendment right against excessive fines.