US v. Williams, No. 09-3795
By
FindLaw Staff on November 16, 2010
| Last updated on March 21, 2019
Crack Sentence Affirmed
In
US v. Williams, No. 09-3795, the court affirmed defendant's sentence for distributing, and aiding and abetting the distribution of, crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school, holding that 1) the timing of defendant's motion supported the government's argument that his motion for reassignment was judge-shopping, rather than reflecting concerns about judicial economy and the need to spare judges from compromising their philosophy of sentencing; 2) it was not unreasonable to require a third party desiring information about a defendant's sentencing proceedings to attend the sentencing hearings; and 3) that the district court did not explicitly address any policy disagreement with other sentencing courts did not convert the denial of variance into an abuse of discretion.
As the court wrote: "A jury convicted Josiah Malachi Israel Williams of one count of distributing, and aiding and abetting the distribution of, crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B)(iii), 860; 18 U.S.C. § 2. On appeal, this court
affirmed. United States v. Williams, 486 F.3d 377 (8th Cir. 2007). The Supreme Court, 552 U.S. 1091 (2008), vacated the judgment and remanded for reconsideration in light of Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (2007). On remand, this court affirmed the conviction, but remanded for resentencing."
Related Resources