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United States of America v. William Douglas

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Before Boudin, Stahl and Howard, Circuit Judges.

In 2009, William Douglas and a co-conspirator engaged in a number of sales of cocaine base to an undercover agent in different locations in Maine. Thereafter, Douglas pled guilty to a one-count information charging him with conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A) and 846 (2006).*fn1 Over the government’s objection, the district court ruled in substance that the reduced mandatory minimums adopted by the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-220, 124 Stat. 2372 (the “FSA”), governed Douglas’ sentence, and the government now appeals.

A chronology helps to set the stage. Douglas’ crime comprised acts occurring at various times in 2009. Douglas’ guilty plea occurred on January 11, 2010. The President signed the FSA and it went into effect on August 3, 2010. Among other changes, the new statute reduced in certain instances the mandatory minimum prison terms prescribed under prior law for violations involving cocaine base; it did so by increasing the drug quantity thresholds required to trigger the specific mandatory minimums. Implicitly, it altered the ratio between those mandatory minimums and the lesser ones prescribed for cocaine powder violations.

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