Sentencing; “Career offender”; USSG § 4B1.2(b); Whether a state felony offense qualified as a “controlled substance offense”; United States v. Cordero; United States v. Havis; Timeliness of as appeal; Fed.R.App.P. 4(b)(1)(A); United States v. Gaytan-Garza; Whether the government could withdraw its opposition to the appeal; Sua sponte dismissal of late appeals; Deloatch v. Sessoms-Deloatch; United States v. Mitchell (10th Cir.); Whether the district court had jurisdiction to grant a defendant leave to file a late notice of appeal; United States v. Carman; Four-level leader enhancement under § 3B1.1(a); Procedural waiver; United States v. Hall (Unpub. 6th Cir.)

In an amended opinion (see e-Journal #74602 in the 1/15/21 edition for the original opinion), the court reversed defendant-Combs’s sentencing as a career-offender where intervening circuit precedent (Cordero) held that conspiracy to distribute no longer qualifies as a “controlled substance offense.” It again held that the government was free to withdraw its opposition to defendant-Jackson’s appeal where Rule 4(b) is simply a claims-processing rule, and the government withdrew its opposition before an order was entered.