Suarez v. U.S.

Full title: WILLIAM SUAREZ, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Respondent

Court: United States District Court, S.D. New York

Date published: Jan 6, 2009

03 Cr. 796 (RPP) (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 6, 2009)

Opinion

03 Cr. 796 (RPP).

January 6, 2009

AMENDED OPINION AND ORDER

ROBERT PATTERSON JR., District Judge

Petitioner William Suarez moves this Court to reduce his term of imprisonment due to United States Sentencing Guidelines Amendment § 706 and 18 U.S.C. §§ 3582(c)(2) and 3553(a). By Amendment § 706, which is retroactive, the United States Sentencing Commission reduced the guidelines sentencing for crack convictions by two levels.

Petitioner was convicted of conspiracy to distribute, and possess with intent to distribute from May 1, 2003 to May 29, 2003, 50 grams and more of crack/cocaine (Count 1), distribution and possession with intent to distribute approximately 100 grams of crack/cocaine on May 12, 2003 (Count 2), and distribution and possession with intent to distribute 300 grams of crack/cocaine on May 23, 2003 (Count 4). The Presentence Report calculated the guidelines sentence for Petitioner at 151 to 188 months. The Court departed from the guideline sentence and sentenced the defendant to 120 months, the mandatory minimum sentence which Congress has enacted.

Accordingly, because the Court has no power to reduce a sentence to below the mandatory minimum set by Congress, the Petitioner is entitled to no relief, and his motion for a sentence reduction is denied.

Petitioner has also moved for appointment of counsel. The motion is denied because such appointment would serve no useful purpose under the circumstances.

The Court continues to recommend to Petitioner that he engage in vocational and educational programs offered by the Bureau of Prisons and apply for the Bureau of Prisons 500 hour substance abuse program.

IT IS SO ORDERED.