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ARGUED OCTOBER 30, 2009

Before CUDAHY, POSNER, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

On November 4, 2002, while en route from Chicago to Minneapolis, Keith Ray was arrested for possessing almost two kilograms of crack cocaine. Due to his significant cooperation, Ray and the government entered into a plea agreement that provided for 263 months’ imprisonment. This was significantly below the relevant Guidelines range of 292-365 months. The agreement did not state that the specified sentence was based upon the Guidelines; nor did it elucidate how the parties arrived at the 263-month figure. After he was sentenced to the agreed term, the Sentencing Commission issued Amendment 706, which lowered the offense level for crack-cocaine offenses. Had this amendment been in effect during his prosecution, Ray’s Guidelines range would have been 235 to 293 months. Contending that the 263-month term in the plea agreement represented a 10% reduction from the low end of the relevant Guidelines range (292 months), Ray filed a 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c) motion for a lower sentence. The district court denied the motion on the ground that the sentence he received was based on the stipulated term of imprisonment rather than on the Guidelines. We affirm.

 
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