Sentence reduction under the First Step Act (§ 404); Whether 18 USC § 3582(c)(1)(B) constrained the district court’s review of sentence modification motions under § 404, preventing it from considering post-sentencing factors upon resentencing; §§ 3582(c)(1)(A) and (c)(2); United States v. Rose (SD NY); § 3553(a); United States v. Christie (2d Cir.); United States v. Metcalfe; Pepper v. United States; United States v. Alexander

The court reversed the district court, holding that the First Step Act provision regarding retroactivity of the Fair Sentencing Act does not prohibit courts from considering a defendant’s post-sentencing conduct when deciding whether to reduce his or her sentence. Defendant-Allen pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, and was sentenced as a career offender. He moved to reduce his sentence under § 404 of the First Step Act, arguing that his sentence and term of supervised release should be reduced because the “Fair Sentencing Act reduced [his] mandatory supervised-release term from” 10 years to 8 years, and his supervised-release term should be reduced accordingly. He also argued that because the statutory-minimum penalty for his drug offense had been lowered, the district court should reduce his prison sentence based on relevant sentencing factors, such as his age and his participation in prison classes. The district court reduced his period of supervised release, but declined to reduce his prison sentence, ruling that the First Step Act precluded consideration of post-sentencing conduct. The government conceded on appeal that this was error. Section 3582(c)(1)(B) does not “contain substantive standards that constrain the district court’s review of sentence modification motions,” as in §§ 3582(c)(1)(A) and (c)(2). Section 3582(c)(1)(B) simply empowers courts to “‘modify an imposed term of imprisonment to the extent otherwise expressly permitted by statute or by Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.’” Thus, a court is not precluded from considering the sentencing factors in § 3553(a). Reversed and remanded for consideration of Allen’s First Step Act motion.