Sanchez v. United States

Background

This order addressed whether the court should conduct a full resentencing and whether section 403(b) of the First Step Act would apply. That provision eliminated the required sentence-stacking treatment for certain convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) when the convictions were obtained at the same trial. The parties submitted responses after the court requested briefing on those issues.

Court’s analysis

The court stated that it had discretion to vacate some or all sentences and conduct a new sentencing proceeding. It had done so in other cases when the sentences operated as an interdependent package and vacating one sentence made the remaining sentence inadequate. But the court concluded that resentencing would have no practical effect here.

The court stated that Sanchez faced a mandatory life-plus sentence regardless of how the sentences were handled: life plus 80 years if the court only vacated Count 30, or life plus 35 years if it also resentenced Counts 29, 39, and 40 without applying the stacking requirement. The court therefore declined to conduct a resentencing and declined to spend the parties’ and the court’s resources litigating the unsettled question of whether section 403(b) would apply at such a proceeding.

Ruling

The court vacated the conviction and sentence on Count 30 in accordance with its earlier decision and stated that it would enter an amended judgment reflecting that action. It did not vacate the sentences on Counts 29, 39, and 40 or conduct resentencing on those counts.

The court also ruled that Sanchez had not made a substantial showing that a constitutional right had been denied. It therefore ordered that a certificate of appealability would not issue. The Clerk of Court was directed to docket the order in both the criminal case, No. 10-CR-392, and the civil case, No. 16-CV-9418.