“The discretion federal judges hold at initial sentencings also characterizes sentencing modification hearings,” the Court said. “Federal judges exercising sentencing discretion have always considered a wide variety of aggravating and mitigating factors relating to the circumstances of both the offense and the offender,” the Court said. The Court, in a 5-4 opinion, held courts may consider intervening changes of law and fact.
to resolve a circuit split on whether courts “must, may or may not consider intervening changes of law or fact” in considering sentence modifications under the First Step Act. It ruled it could not consider later changes in law, except for the Fair Sentencing Act, and it refused to consider Concepcion's post-sentence evidence of rehabilitation or the Government's countervailing evidence of prison disciplinary violations. The First Step Act authorizes district courts to impose a reduced sentence “as if” certain sections of the Fair Sentencing Act “were in effect at the time the covered offense was committed.”Ĭoncepcion applied for a sentence reduction.īut the district court denied relief. Initially, Concepcion was not eligible for retroactive relief under the Sentencing Commission changes, because he was a “career offender.” But he became eligible in 2018, when Congress passed the First Step Act.
#CONCEPCION V UNITED STATES CRACK#
The Sentencing Commission subsequently retroactively amended the Sentencing Guidelines to lower the range for crack offenses. In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, to correct the harsh disparities between crack and powder cocaine. He was sentenced under a scheme that had a 100-to-1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine, and he also was sentenced as a “career offender” – both of which led to enhanced sentences. In 2007, Carlos Concepcion was convicted of distributing crack cocaine.
Supreme Court held June 27 in Concepcion v. District courts considering motions for sentence reduction under the First Step Act may consider intervening changes of law – such as changes to the Sentencing Guidelines – and of fact – such as behavior in prison, the U.S.
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