Rodriguez v. United States
- Alison Nathan
- 1:16-cv-03955
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Rodriguez v. United States, Judge Nathan granted Rodriguez’s petition, vacated his firearm conviction, and resentenced him to time served and supervised release.
Alex Rodriguez’s federal firearm conviction, related special assessment, and sentence were affected; the court left the robbery-conspiracy conviction in place and resentenced him on that count.
What happened
In Rodriguez v. United States, Alex Rodriguez had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery and possessing a firearm in connection with that conspiracy. The court originally imposed consecutive prison terms of 33 months and 60 months.
Rodriguez later asked the court to vacate his sentence under a federal statute allowing challenges to federal convictions and sentences. After the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Davis, the court concluded that his firearm conviction could not stand because the robbery conspiracy qualified as a violent crime only under a provision that Davis invalidated.
Judge Nathan granted the petition, vacated the firearm conviction and its special assessment, and resentenced Rodriguez on the robbery-conspiracy count to time served and twelve months of supervised release.
The detailed version
- Rodriguez v. United States · No. 1:16-cv-03955
- Alison Nathan
- Dec. 11, 2019
Background
The Government charged Alex Rodriguez with two offenses: conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951, and possessing a firearm in relation to a robbery conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Rodriguez pleaded guilty to both counts on February 4, 2013.
On July 1, 2013, the court sentenced him to 33 months of imprisonment on Count One and 60 months on Count Two, to be served consecutively. It also imposed three years of supervised release on each count, to run concurrently.
Petition and Legal Basis
On May 24, 2016, Rodriguez filed a petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, a federal procedure for asking the sentencing court to vacate, set aside, or correct a sentence. The petition was stayed while the Supreme Court considered United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319 (2019).
The court stated that Davis invalidated the residual clause of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3). It concluded that conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery qualified as a crime of violence only under that invalidated clause. As a result, Rodriguez’s conviction on Count Two could no longer stand.
Ruling
The court granted Rodriguez’s petition and vacated his Count Two conviction. It also vacated the special assessment imposed on Count Two under 18 U.S.C. § 3013.
The court resentenced Rodriguez on Count One to time served and twelve months of supervised release, beginning on December 9, 2019, the date of resentencing. The order was issued by Judge Alison J. Nathan.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.