In United States v. McCoy, No. 21-13838 (Dec. 14, 2023) (Jordan, Newsom, Grimberg (N.D. Ala.)), the Court affirmed the denial of a motion for a reduced sentence under Section 404 of the First Step Act.
The Court re-affirmed its prior precedent holding that a defendant is bound by pre-Apprendi, judge-made drug-quantity findings for purposes of Section 404. The Court further rejected the defendant’s argument that this precedent violated due process on the theory that, at the time of his sentencing, he had no notice that he needed to object to the drug-quantity finding beyond 50 grams of crack. The Court explained that due process did not require defendants to receive notice about hypothetical, future ameliorative legislation that is then unknown.
Judge Grimberg concurred, sympathizing with the defendant’s due process argument and wondering if defendants must now preserve arguments based on future legislation.
https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/202113838.pdf
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