Opinion
11-20031-01-JWL
11-08-2024
United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Juan Manuel Cortez-Diaz, Defendant.
MEMORANDUM & ORDER
HON. JOHN W. LUNGSTRUM United States District Judge
Defendant has filed a pro se motion to appoint counsel (doc. 222) to assist him in preparing a motion for a sentence reduction under amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines that went into effective on November 1, 2024. The motion is denied. Defendant has no constitutional or statutory right to appointment of counsel with respect to a motion to reduce his sentence. See Coronado v. Ward, 517 F.3d 1212, 1218 (10th Cir. 2008) (no constitutional right to counsel beyond direct appeal of criminal conviction); United States v. Hemmelgarn, 15 F.4th 1027, 1032 (10th Cir. 2021) (right to counsel does not extend to § 3582(c)(2) motion) (citing United States v. Campos, 630 Fed.Appx. 813, 816 (10th Cir. 2015)). Moreover, because defendant has not yet filed a motion seeking substantive relief, the court cannot assess whether the court, in its discretion, should appoint counsel to assist defendant with any specific issues of law or fact. If defendant does file a pro se motion seeking a sentence reduction concerning the new Sentencing Guidelines, the court will consider a request for the appointment of counsel at that point if the motion reflects that defendant may be entitled to relief or that appointed counsel might be helpful in some other respect.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED BY THE COURT THAT defendant's motion to appoint counsel (doc. 222) is denied.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Dated this 8th day of November, 2024, at Kansas City, Kansas.