Davis v. United States
U.S. Supreme Court · decided March 23, 2020 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- March 23, 2020
- Term
- October Term 2019
- Vote
- 9–0
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
OCTOBER TERM, 2019 345 Per Curiam DAVIS v. UNITED STATES on petition for writ of certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fth circuit No. 19–5421. Decided March 23, 2020 After his July 2016 encounter with police, Charles Davis entered a guilty plea for being a felon in possession of a frearm, 18 U. S. C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2), and for possessing drugs with the intent to distribute them, 21 U. S. C. §§841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C). A presentence report noted that Davis was also facing pending drug and gun charges in Texas courts stemming from a separate 2015 state arrest. The District Court sen- tenced Davis to four years and nine months in prison and ordered that the federal sentence run consecutively to any sentences that the state courts might impose for his 2015 state offenses. Davis did not object. On appeal, Davis argued for the frst time that the District Court erred by ordering his federal sentence to run consecutively to any sentences for his 2015 state offenses because the underlying offenses were part of the “same course of conduct” such that the sentences should have run concurrently under applicable sentencing guidelines. The Fifth Circuit characterized Davis' argument as raising factual issues and, based on Fifth Circuit precedent, refused to entertain Davis' argument. Almost every other Court of Appeals conducts plain-error review of unpre- served…
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