{"id":40420,"date":"2017-12-10T14:23:50","date_gmt":"2017-12-10T19:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/?p=40420"},"modified":"2019-11-06T11:08:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T16:08:58","slug":"certiorari-granted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/appeal\/certiorari-granted","title":{"rendered":"Certiorari Granted By Supreme Court In Three New Criminal Appeals"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/supremecourt.gov\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> on Friday granted\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em> in three new criminal cases.\u00a0<em>Certiorari<\/em> is a latin term that is most commonly associated with a\u00a0<em>writ of certiorari<\/em>, a discretionary order issued by the Supreme Court when it agrees to review a lower court&#8217;s decision. A\u00a0<em>writ of certiorari<\/em> will not issue unless four Justices agree to hear a case.<\/p>\r\n<p><em>Certiorari\u00a0<\/em>was granted in:<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><em>Koons v. United States<\/em>, No.\u00a017-5716<\/li>\r\n<li><em>Hughes v. United States<\/em>, No. 17-155<\/li>\r\n<li><em>United States v. Sanchez-Gomez<\/em>, No. 17-312<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h2><em>Koons v. United States<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p>In\u00a0<em>Koons<\/em> the Court agreed to decide the following question:<\/p>\r\n<p>Whether a defendant who is subject to a statutory mandatory minimum sentence, but who substantially assisted the government and received a sentence below the mandatory minimum pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 3553(e), is eligible for a further sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2), when the Sentencing Commission retroactively lowers the advisory sentencing guidelines range that would have applied in the absence of the statutory mandatory minimum.<\/p>\r\n<p>When the Sentencing Commission enacted Amendment 782 to the Guidelines, more commonly known as &#8220;drugs minus 2,&#8221; it authorized courts to grant 3582(c)(2) relief to defendants who were sentenced below the mandatory minimum because of cooperation.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Eighth Circuit, however, recently held that defendants who were sentenced below a mandatory minimum were not sentenced &#8220;based on&#8221; the Guidelines, but rather the Government&#8217;s cooperation reduction motion. As a result, this class of defendants are ineligible for Amendment 782 relief because the ultimate sentence was not based on the Guidelines.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Fourth Circuit has held otherwise in\u00a0<em>United States v. Williams<\/em>, 808 F.3d 253 (4th Cir. 2015).<\/p>\r\n<p>The Supreme Court will now resolve this split in authority. A decision in\u00a0<em>Hughes<\/em> is expected by June 2018.<\/p>\r\n<p>The\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em> petition in\u00a0<em>Koons<\/em>, and the Government&#8217;s response to the petition can be found here:<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Koons-v--United-States-No--17-5716-Cert--Petition-pdf-image.png\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Koons<\/em>\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em> petition<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/17-155_hughes_opp-1.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Government&#8217;s response to\u00a0<em>Koons<\/em><\/a> petition<\/p>\r\n<h2><em>Hughes v. United States<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p>The Supreme Court also granted\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em> in\u00a0<em>Hughes v. United States<\/em>, No. 17-5716.<\/p>\r\n<p>The question in\u00a0<em>Hughes<\/em>\u00a0is:<\/p>\r\n<p>Whether, as a four-justice plurality in\u00a0<em>Freeman v. United States<\/em>\u00a0concluded, a defendant who enters into a Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement is generally eligible for a sentence reduction if there is a later, retroactive amendment to the relevant Sentencing Guidelines range.<\/p>\r\n<p>The federal circuits are divided 10-2 on this specific issue. Defendants with an 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement cannot receive Amendment 782 relief in the 1st-8th, 10th &amp; 11th Circuits unless the plea agreement itself\u00a0 bases the agreed upon sentence on the Guidelines. Most binding pleas do not do this.<\/p>\r\n<p>This could be a really significant decision for defendants with 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreements if the Court holds that a plea agreement&#8217;s failure to incorporate Guideline calculations does not bar 3582 relief.<\/p>\r\n<p>A decision should be issued by June 2018.<\/p>\r\n<p>You access a copy of the\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em> petition and response here:<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Hughes-v.-United-States-No.-17-155-Certiorari-Petition.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Hughes<\/em> <em>certiorari<\/em> petition<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Erik-Hughes-v.-United-States-No.-17-155-Supreme-Court-Reply-.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reply<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Hughes-v.-United-States-Response-of-United-States-No.-17-155.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Government response to\u00a0<em>Hughes\u00a0certiorari\u00a0<\/em>petition<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n<h2><em>United States v. Sanchez-Gomez<\/em><\/h2>\r\n<p>Finally, the Court granted\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em> in\u00a0<em>United States v. Sanchez-Gomez<\/em>, No. 17-312.<\/p>\r\n<p>The question presented is:<\/p>\r\n<p>Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit erred in asserting authority to review respondents&#8217; interlocutory challenge to pretrial physical restraints and in ruling on that challenge notwithstanding its recognition that respondents&#8217; individual claims were moot.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Ninth Circuit previously declared the District of Arizona&#8217;s practice of restraining pre-trial defendants during court proceedings unconstitutional. The Supreme Court will decide if the Ninth Circuit should made a decision on this issue in the first place because of the procedural posture of the case at the time of appeal.<\/p>\r\n<p>The petition, response and reply can be accessed at:<\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/United-States-v.-Sanchez-Gomez-No.-17-312-petition-for-certiorari.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>United States v. Sanchez-Gomez<\/em> petition for\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/United-States-v.-Sanchez-Gomez-Brief-of-Respondent.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Response to petition for\u00a0<em>certiorari<\/em><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sentencing.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/No.-17-312-United-States-v.-Sanchez-Gomez-Reply-Brief-of-United-States.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Reply to Response<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>A decision in the case is also expected by June 2018.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday granted\u00a0certiorari in three new criminal cases.\u00a0Certiorari is a latin term that is most commonly associated with a\u00a0writ of certiorari, a discretionary order issued by the Supreme Court when it agrees to review a lower court&#8217;s decision. A\u00a0writ of certiorari will not issue unless four Justices agree to hear a&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Our Attorneys Explain U.S. Supreme Court Developments | 802-444-4357<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On December 8, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in three new criminal appeals. 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