The Supreme Court recently handed down its decision in Freeman v. United States, which reversed an unpublished decision by the Sixth Circuit regarding the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The case involved a retroactive guideline change that addressed the disparity in penalties between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Mr. Freeman sought to obtain a sentence reduction based on the change even though he had already been sentenced, which the Sixth Circuit denied. The Supreme Court reversed, relying on both the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and relevant statues as the basis for the decision. A more complete description of this case can be found at the sentencing law and policy blog. This case continues the trend of the Supreme Court’s recent reversals of the Sixth Circuit that we have reported on here and here.
