Hewitt v. United States
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 26, 2025 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Decided
- June 26, 2025
- Term
- October Term 2024
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
PRELIMINARY PRINT Volume 606 U. S. Part 1 Pages 419–460 OFFICIAL REPORTS OF THE SUPREME COURT June 26, 2025 Page Proof Pending Publication REBECCA A. WOMELDORF reporter of decisions NOTICE: This preliminary print is subject to formal revision before the bound volume is published. Users are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, D. C. 20543, pio@supremecourt.gov, of any typographical or other formal errors. OCTOBER TERM, 2024 419 Syllabus HEWITT v. UNITED STATES certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the fth circuit No. 23–1002. Argued January 13, 2025—Decided June 26, 2025* Before the First Step Act was enacted in 2018, federal judges were re- quired to sentence frst-time offenders convicted of violating 18 U. S. C. § 924(c)—a law that criminalizes possessing a frearm while committing other crimes—to “stacked” 25-year periods of incarceration. The First Step Act eliminated this harsh mandatory minimum penalty. Section 403(b) of the Act also made its more lenient penalties partially retroac- tive. Specifcally, if a sentence “has not been imposed” upon an eligible § 924(c) offender as of the date of the First Step Act's enactment, the Act applies. The question presented here concerns an edge case: What penalties apply when a § 924(c) offender had been sentenced as of the Act's enactment, but that sentence…
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