United States v. Leroy Morales

Facts

In 1990, Leroy Morales pled guilty to distribution of crack cocaine and was sentenced to 110 months in prison and 5 years supervised release. Morales served his time but, while on supervised release, he was convicted of robbery in state court. Because of this conviction, the federal district court revoked Morales’s supervised release and sentenced him to 36 months, which he is to serve on completion of his state sen- tence.

Effective November 2007, the United States Sentencing Commission lowered the offense levels for crack cocaine, see U.S.S.G. app. C, amend. 706 (2007), and this change is retro- active, id. at amend. 713 (2008). Morales moved to reduce his sentence for violating supervised release in March 2008. He argued that, had he been sentenced under the revised guide- lines, his sentencing range would have been 92-115 months instead of 110-137 months. Based on this difference, he requested an 18-month reduction of his supervised release revocation sentence. The district court concluded that it had no authority to reduce Morales’s sentence and denied the motion. Morales appeals.

Analysis

[1] We review de novo whether the district court had juris- diction to modify…