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29 cases — ← All topics

Case Title Lower Court Docketed Status Flags Tags Question Presented
25-6086 Jonathan Kemuel Fargas-Reyes v. United States First Circuit 2025-11-12 Denied Response WaivedIFP appellate-review circuit-split sentencing-disparities sentencing-reform similar-conduct statutory-interpretation A core purpose of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 is to eliminate arbitrary sentencing disparities. As part of that reform, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(6) r…
24-1293 Brett Morris McAlpin v. United States Fifth Circuit 2025-06-18 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2) appellate-review circuit-split contract-law due-process plea-agreement sentencing-reform Should an appeal waiver in a plea agreement be enforced when the plea agreement confers no benefit on the defendant in exchange for his guilty plea, t…
24-5016 Michael Medina v. United States Fifth Circuit 2024-07-08 GVR Relisted (2)IFP circuit-split criminal-justice-reform first-step-act mandatory-minimum post-conviction-relief resentencing retroactivity sentencing-reduction sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether the First Step Act's sentencing reduction provisions apply to a defendant initially sentenced prior to the FSA's enactment; whose sentence was…
23-6098 Ricardo Dinnall v. United States Fourth Circuit 2023-11-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP appellate-review criminal-justice criminal-procedure district-court federal-sentencing first-step-act judicial-discretion sentencing-reduction sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether Concepcion v. United States, 142 S. Ct. 2389 (2022), requires district courts to consider all nonfrivolous arguments raised by the patties in …
23-531 Timothy I. Carpenter v. United States Sixth Circuit 2023-11-17 Denied Amici (2) criminal-procedure drug-offense federal-firearm-offense first-step-act mandatory-minimum mandatory-minimums retroactivity sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Do the sentencing reforms in Section 403 of the First Step Act apply when a district court sentences an individual whose offense was committed before …
22-7303 Patrick Dewayne Smith v. United States Sixth Circuit 2023-04-17 Denied Response WaivedIFP compassionate-release extraordinary-and-compelling extraordinary-circumstances federal-law-change first-step-act mandatory-life-sentence mandatory-minimum retroactivity sentencing-reduction sentencing-reform Whether non-retroactive changes in federal law can serve as 'extraordinary and compelling reasons' warranting a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3…
22-7059 Aaron M. Haynes v. United States Sixth Circuit 2023-03-21 Denied Relisted (2)IFP circuit-split criminal-history-points criminal-justice federal-sentencing first-step-act mandatory-minimum safety-valve sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether the 'and' in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)(1) means 'and' or 'or'
22-6023 Tonatihu Aguilar v. Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. Ninth Circuit 2022-11-08 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP criminal-procedure eighth-amendment juvenile-offender juvenile-sentencing life-without-parole mandatory-sentencing miller-v-alabama parole-abolition sentencing-reform When a state abolishes its parole system, does it create a mandatory life-without-parole sentence that, when imposed on a juvenile homicide offender, …
22-5934 Gemar Morgan v. United States Sixth Circuit 2022-10-28 Denied Response WaivedIFP compassionate-release constitutional-due-process covid-19 criminal-justice-reform first-step-act health-conditions judicial-discretion retroactive-application sentence-modification sentencing-reform sentencing-reform-act statutory-interpretation Whether the district court erred in denying the petitioner's motion for compassionate release under the First Step Act, in light of the petitioner's h…
21-7238 Holli Wrice v. United States Seventh Circuit 2022-03-01 Denied Response WaivedIFP 18-usc-3582 3553(a)-factors compassionate-release congressional-intent criminal-justice-reform criminal-procedure extraordinary-and-compelling extraordinary-circumstances retroactive-sentencing sentencing-reduction sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether district courts can reduce a defendant's sentence based on the reason that the defendant is serving a sentence for an offense for which the pe…
21-7219 Lorenzo Suttles v. United States Sixth Circuit 2022-02-28 Denied Response WaivedIFP 18-usc-3582 compassionate-release criminal-justice-reform criminal-procedure federal-courts first-step-act miscarriage-of-justice sentencing-reduction sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether a pre-FSA defendant's circumstances changed by Congress's clarification of §924(c) may constitute extraordinary and compelling reasons for com…
21-6861 Piyarath S. Kayarath v. United States Tenth Circuit 2022-01-14 Denied Response WaivedIFP adolescent-brain compassionate-release extraordinary-circumstances mandatory-life-sentence mandatory-minimums neuroscience neuroscience-evidence procedural-error section-3553 section-3582 sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reform Whether Booker's invalidation of the mandatory sentencing regime, and post-Booker neuroscience facts about the adolescent brain constitutes extraordin…
21-5671 Vicente Corona v. United States Sixth Circuit 2021-09-14 Denied IFP 18-usc-3553 18-usc-3582 compassionate-release criminal-sentencing extraordinary-compelling-reasons sentencing-disparities sentencing-reduction sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether 'Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons' to Reduce a Defendant's Sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) may be based on any Factor a Court …
21-5104 John G. Tomes, Jr. v. United States Sixth Circuit 2021-07-14 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP 18-usc-3582 compassionate-release criminal-justice criminal-procedure due-process extraordinary-circumstances judicial-discretion sentencing-disparities sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reduction sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether 'Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons' to Reduce a Defendant's Sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) may be based on any Factor a Court …
20-8316 Michael Lawrence Williams v. United States Fifth Circuit 2021-06-15 Denied IFP appellate-review criminal-sentencing district-court first-step-act sentencing-reform substantive-reasonableness Whether a district court's denial of a motion for relief from under Section 404 of the First Step Act is subject to substantive reasonableness review?
20-8062 Erold Martin Panopio v. United States Eleventh Circuit 2021-05-18 Denied Response WaivedIFP constitutional-rights criminal-justice criminal-procedure cruel-and-unusual-punishment eighth-amendment juvenile-sentencing sentencing sentencing-reform supervised-release youthful-offender youthful-offenders Whether a near twenty year prison sentence followed by a fifteen year term of supervised release for a youthful offender such as Panopio violates the …
20-7077 Derrick Lakeith Brown v. United States Sixth Circuit 2021-02-08 Denied Relisted (2)IFP constitutional-claims constitutional-provisions federal-procedure first-step-act gall-v-united-states habeas-corpus judicial-review petition-standards sentencing-reform statutory-provisions supreme-court-review united-states-v-booker Whether the first step act sentencing reform wreak havoc with the United States v. Booker (2005) and Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) precede…
20-459 Robert Ryan Snyder v. California California 2020-10-08 Denied administrative-law cell-assignment constitutional-rights due-process emergency-regulations equal-protection prison-overcrowding prisoner-conditions prisoner-rights sentencing-reform Should the extra living space created by California's prison population reduction measures be prioritized for long-serving or long-incarcerated prison…
20-5194 In Re Kevin D. Moore 2020-07-31 Denied Relisted (2)IFP compassionate-release covid-19 due-process equal-protection federal-prisoner habeas-corpus non-successive-claim post-conviction-relief sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation supreme-court-precedent Whether the district court erred in denying petitioner's motion for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) based on the COVID-19 pandem…
19-8036 Odis Lee Jackson v. United States Fifth Circuit 2020-03-18 Denied Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP criminal-justice-reform criminal-resentencing district-court-procedure due-process federal-jurisdiction first-step-act judicial-review mandatory-minimum post-sentencing-conduct sentencing sentencing-modification sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation What procedures does Section 404 of the First Step Act require a district court to follow when conducting its statutorily required 'complete review of…
19-527 Paul Huskisson v. United States Seventh Circuit 2019-10-23 Denied direct-appeal exclusionary-rule first-step-act fourth-amendment independent-source independent-source-doctrine police-misconduct retroactivity sentencing sentencing-reform Does the independent source exception to the exclusionary rule take into account the flagrancy and deliberate nature of the underlying Fourth Amendmen…
19-6255 Kunta Kenta Redd v. United States Fourth Circuit 2019-10-11 Denied Response WaivedIFP crack-cocaine crack-cocaine-sentencing criminal-justice-reform due-process first-step-act retroactivity section-404 sentencing-disparity sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reform sixth-amendment statutory-interpretation Whether the petitioner is entitled to relief from denial of a 404 motion at the district court level in light of the First Step Act
19-5401 Thomas Lewis v. United States Ninth Circuit 2019-07-30 Denied Response WaivedIFP 18-usc-371 18-usc-924c ambiguous-record circuit-split crime-of-violence criminal-law criminal-procedure-retroactivity due-process federal-conspiracy mandatory-sentencing retroactive-invalidation retroactivity sentencing statutory-interpretation united-states-v-davis Does this Court's ruling in United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319 (2019) apply retroactively to defendant's raising motions to vacate their sentence…
19-5392 Kurt J. Myrie v. United States Ninth Circuit 2019-07-30 Denied IFP 18-usc-371 18-usc-924c crime-of-violence criminal-procedure criminal-procedure-retroactivity due-process federal-conspiracy retroactivity violent-crime Does the ruling in United States v. Davis apply retroactively to defendants raising motions to vacate their § 924(c) convictions?
18-9431 William Maurice Smith v. United States Ninth Circuit 2019-05-28 Denied Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP criminal-justice-reform criminal-procedure criminal-procedure-retroactivity,sentencing-reform drug-distribution due-process first-step-act griffith-v-kentucky ninth-circuit ninth-circuit-review resentencing retroactive-application retroactivity sentencing sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Does Griffith v. Kentucky, 479 U.S. 314, (1987) apply to First Step Act of 2018?
18-8534 Gino Carlucci v. United States Ninth Circuit 2019-03-22 Denied Response WaivedIFP certificate-of-appealability collateral-review criminal-procedure-retroactivity fifth-amendment ineffective-assistance-of-counsel marital-communications-privilege mccoy-v-louisiana ninth-circuit retroactive-application retroactivity Did the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals err by failing to issue a C.0.A. to determine if McCoy v. Louisiana applies retroactively to cases on collatera…
18-6927 In Re Jerry Urbina 2018-12-06 Denied IFP abuse-of-discretion criminal-procedure criminal-sentencing federal-courts judicial-discretion plea-agreement plea-bargaining retroactivity rule-11 sentencing-amendment sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reform statutory-interpretation Whether the lower courts abused their discretion by denying petitioner Urbina relief under the 782 Amendment due to his being the beneficiary of a Rul…
18-5970 Allen D. Gorion v. United States Ninth Circuit 2018-09-13 Denied Response WaivedIFP abuse-of-discretion appellate-review criminal-sentencing cruel-and-unusual-punishment due-process federal-sentencing judicial-discretion reasonableness reasonableness-standard sentencing-discretion sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reform Whether certiorari should be granted to set forth some guidelines in determining when a sentence is unreasonable?
18-5308 O'Neil Anthony Harris v. United States Eleventh Circuit 2018-07-20 Denied Response WaivedIFP advisory-guidelines congressional-intent guideline-amendment judicial-discretion sentence-enhancement sentencing-factors sentencing-guidelines sentencing-reform upward-variance Whether a district court disregards congressional intent and imposes an unreasonable sentence when it applies an upward variance to the advisory sente…