| After defendant was erroneously sentenced as a career offender, he moved to reduce his sentence to time served under the First Step Act. The district court denied defendant's motion to reduce his custodial sentence, though it granted the motion as to his supervised release term. The Fourth Circuit held that the First Step Act does not constrain courts from recognizing Guidelines errors. The court explained that First Step Act motions fall under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(B), a distinct exception to finality, and that section 404(b) of the First Step Act expressly allows a court to impose a reduced sentence in order to give retroactive effect to sections 2 and 3 of the Fair Sentencing Act. Furthermore, 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) sentencing factors apply in the section 404(b) resentencing context, and the resentencing court has discretion within the section 404(b) framework to vary from the Guidelines and, in doing so, to consider movants' post-sentencing conduct. In this case, the district court seemingly believed that it could not vary from the Guidelines range to reflect post-sentencing information. Therefore, the court vacated the district court's sentencing order. Finally, the court held that any Guidelines error deemed retroactive, such as the error in this case, must be corrected in a First Step Act resentencing. |
