United States v. Donnie Bryant

MEMORANDUM

Defendant-Appellant Donnie Bryant was convicted of numerous weapons offenses and violent crimes in aid of racketeering (“VICAR”), including murder, for acts he committed as a juvenile. The district court, acting pursuant to mandatory sentencing statutes, sentenced Bryant to life imprisonment for the VICAR-murder count plus an additional 40 years for the other offenses. Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. Alabama, — U.S. -, 132 S.Ct. 2455, 2460 , 183 L.Ed.2d 407 (2012), which held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a juvenile homicide offender from being subjected to a mandatory sentence of life in prison without parole, Bryant filed a motion pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate his sentence. In that motion, Bryant also argued that his convictions should be vacated because the district court gave an erroneous jury instruction regarding VICAR’s “purpose” element. The district court granted Bryant’s motion for re-sentencing in the light of Miller , but denied Bryant’s motion to vacate the convictions. The district court subsequently sentenced Bryant to 40 years in prison for his YICAR-mur-der conviction, for a total of 80 years for all of the counts of…