United States v. Robert Pleasant

After pleading guilty to possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, Robert Pleasant was sentenced to 77 months’ imprisonment. The plea agreement stipulated that Pleasant should be sentenced under the crack-cocaine guidelines, but it also acknowledged that his status as a Career Offender exposed Pleasant to a sentence as high as 235 months. After the Sentencing Commission amended the crack-cocaine guidelines, the district court granted a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582 (c)(2). We have jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3742 (b), and we reverse.

I.

Pleasant was indicted in 2008 for possessing, with intent to distribute, crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1). He pled guilty pursuant to a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement and, in doing so, admitted that he had possessed over twelve grams of crack cocaine. The plea agreement recognized that Pleasant qualified for sentencing under the Career Offender guidelines (U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1), but provided instead that his sentence should be at the low end of the guidelines applicable to crack-cocaine offenses (U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(c)). The district court accepted the plea agreement by granting a variance from the…