United States v. Joacko Williams

The government appeals a criminal sentence. The district court departed downward from defendant Joacko Williams’s applicable sentencing guidelines range because of its view that Williams would have received a lesser sentence had he been prosecuted in state court, as the district court believed he should have been. The United States contends that the district court abused its discretion in departing on this ground. We agree, and we accordingly vacate Williams’s sentence and remand for resentencing.

Factual Background

Williams pleaded guilty to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1). Williams’s total offense level and criminal history category resulted in a prescribed sentencing range of 37-46 months under the United States Sentencing Guidelines.

At the sentencing hearing, the district court indicated that it found the case troubling. The court noted that, had the case been prosecuted in California state court, Williams probably would have received a prison sentence of nine months to one year, and that “it just was the fact that [the case was] in federal court, for no apparent reason other than it’s possible, that…