No. 20-8211

Christian M. Allmendinger v. United States

Lower Court: Fourth Circuit
Docketed: 2021-06-03
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: acquitted-conduct criminal-procedure due-process fifth-amendment judicial-fact-finding jury-trial reasonable-doubt sentencing-guidelines sixth-amendment witte-v-united-states
Key Terms:
FifthAmendment DueProcess HabeasCorpus
Latest Conference: 2021-09-27
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the Fifth and Sixth Amendments forbid sentencing guidelines from enhancing the presumed reasonable punishment for an offense, unless the facts used by those guidelines to enhance the presumed penalty are found by a 'beyond a reasonable doubt' standard after indictment

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. 99, 133 S. Ct. 2151 (2013), expressly overruled Harris v. United States, 536 U.S. 545 (2002), and at least implicitly overturned McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79 (1986). Did McMillan’s rejection also fatally undermine two cases that depend upon it, Witte v. United States, 515 U.S. 389 (1995); and United States v. Watts, 519 U.S. 148 (1997)? Consequently: a. does the Fifth Amendment forbid sentencing guidelines from enhancing the presumed reasonable punishment for an offense, unless the facts used by those guidelines to enhance the presumed penalty are found by a “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard after indictment? b. does the Sixth Amendment forbid a judge, instead of a jury, finding the facts that enhance a presumed reasonable punishment? 2. May sentencing courts insert their own suppositions over a party’s demonstration; deem statistical and empirical data “too abstract to bear meaningfully on... sentence”; and reject its own observation that the defendant before the bar is different from the original defendant sentenced? Or are such deviations factual flaws fatal to procedural and substantive reasonableness?

Docket Entries

2021-10-04
Petition DENIED.
2021-06-17
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/27/2021.
2021-06-08
Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
2021-05-28
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due July 6, 2021)

Attorneys

Christian Allmendinger
EJ Hurst II — Petitioner
EJ Hurst II — Petitioner
United States
Brian H. FletcherActing Solicitor General, Respondent
Brian H. FletcherActing Solicitor General, Respondent