United States v. Gregory L. Corley and William E. Graham

Gregory Corley and William Graham, Corley’s father, appeal the sentences imposed upon them under the Sentencing Guidelines for conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 .

Corley’s principal challenge is to the method used by the district court to measure the amount of marijuana for purposes of determining his base offense level under the Drug Quantity Table of the Guidelines. Graham’s primary argument is that the district court violated Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32(c)(3)(D) by failing specifically to find on the record that Graham had not sufficiently accepted personal responsibility for his criminal conduct to qualify for a two-point reduction under Sentencing Guidelines section 3El.l(a). We find neither of these arguments to have any merit and affirm.

The father and son defendants pleaded guilty after federal agents raided their growing shed and discovered over 1,300 marijuana plants and additional quantities of dried marijuana “shake” leaves. At sentencing, the district court adopted the probation officer’s decision to disregard “800 seedlings” found in the defendants’ shed. The district court similarly ignored the dried shake…