District Court Can Consider Prior Guideline Reductions at 3582(c)(2) Resentencing

United States v. D.C., ___ F.3d ___, 2008 WL 5340429 (10th Cir. 2008)

Great argument in retroactive crack reduction case where Defendant had previously received 5K1.1 and Sec. 3553(e) reductions, rejected by the COA. Defendant claimed that the district court, in the reduction re-sentencing, erroneously took the extent of those cooperation reductions into account when denying the retroactive crack reduction. Court holds that district courts may indeed factor in prior guideline applications into the decision on whether to grant the retroactive reduction in spite of guideline language that in considering the reduction, “all other guideline applications decisions [must remain] unaffected.” It is discretionary whether to reduce a sentence under the crack amendment, and a court appropriately considers the overall length of a sentence in making that decision. Sec. 3582(c) modifications are narrow in scope.