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U.S. Supreme Court Severely Restricts Scope of Sentence Reduction Proceedings under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2).

By Candace Hom, Melinda Ghilardi, Nancy Rimmer, Sarah Gannett, Renee Pietropaolo and Tieffa Harper

As suggested in this Blog?s May 2009 entry, the Third Circuit?s decision in United States v. Dillon, 572 F.3d 146 (3d Cir. 2009) has, indeed, effectively "ended crack litigation", as the Supreme Court, by a 7-1 vote, affirmed the Third Circuit in Dillon v. United States, No. 09-6338 (U.S. June 17, 2010). In brief, Justice Sotomayor?s majority opinion holds that proceedings brought by a defendant?s motion for sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) are not governed by the same principles as standard plenary sentencing proceedings ? notably, application of United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005) ? but rather are limited to the specific reduction permitted by the Sentencing Commission?s relevant policy statement. The effect of Dillon, in light of the recent two-level reduction for crack offenses in the USSG § 2D1...continue to full post

Full post as published by Third Circuit Blog on June 25, 2010 (boomark / email).