United States v. Williams

Michael Reese Williams appeals from the 120-month sentence imposed following his guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922 (g)(1), 924(a)(2), and possession with intent to distribute cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1), (b)(1)(B). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we vacate and remand.

Williams first contends that counsel’s failures deprived him of the right to counsel. We disagree. The record demonstrates that counsel allocuted on behalf of Williams and requested a sentence at the low end of the Guidelines range, which the court granted. Accordingly, this was not a situation in which “counsel entirely fail[ed] to subject the prosecution’s case to meaningful adversarial testing.” See Bell v. Cone, 535 U.S. 685, 697 , 122 S.Ct. 1843 , 152 L.Ed.2d 914 (2002), quoting United States v. Cronic, 466 U.S. 648, 659 , 104 S.Ct. 2039 , 80 L.Ed.2d 657 (1984).

Williams next contends that his counsel provided ineffective assistance. Because claims of ineffective assistance of counsel are generally reserved for collateral proceedings and are inappropriate for direct review, we decline to address Williams’ contention.…