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Criminal Law Keyed to Osler
Spears v. United States
Citation:
555 U.S. 261 (2009)Facts
During sentencing, the original range given was an offense level of 38- placing the defendant in category IV. This resulted in a sentencing guideline of 324 to 405 months of imprisonment, based on a 100:1 ratio between powder cocaine and crack cocaine quantities. District court determined that ration resulted in an excessive sentence and recalculated the offense with a 20:1 crack to powder ratio. The new calculation resulted in a offense level of 34 and a sentencing guideline of 210 to 262 months imprisonment. Defendant was sentenced to 240 months total. After being bounced around between the 8th Circuit and the Supreme Court, a longer sentence than was issued by the district court was appealed to the Supreme Court.
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