•  
  •  

Home > School of Law > Student > Law Review > Vol. 46 > Iss. 2 (2024)

 

Western New England Law Review

Alexa Brown

Abstract

The First Step Act of 2018 was signed into law by President Trump in December of 2018. This Act sought to adopt a less-retributive approach on sentencing while advancing criminal justice reform toward reducing excessively long federal sentences. This Note will specifically focus on section 403 of the Act. Section 403 was created to eradicate stacking sentences from second or subsequent convictions within the same indictment. Following the enactment of the First Step Act, only defendants with a prior conviction from a separate, prior indictment would be subject to the imposition of the higher mandatory minimum sentence.

The issue that has arisen from the enactment of section 403(b) of the First Step Act is the question of which cases may apply to get a reduced mandatory minimum sentence under the new Act. Circuit courts have split over determining the scope of the Act’s retroactive application to convictions that occurred prior to the First Step Act’s enactment, where the original sentences have been vacated. Specifically, the question is whether the language in section 403(b) of the Act is meant to include sentences that were vacated before and or after the enactment. This circuit split is causing an unfair disparity in federal sentencing with some defendants having access to the First Step Act’s section 403(b) benefits, while others are not. Currently, section 403(b) states that the First Step Act applies to offenses committed before the Act where a sentence has not been imposed since the date of the Act’s enactment. To address the disparity, the wording of section 403(b) must be more specific as to which sentences fall within the Act’s scope. This Note argues that for offenses committed before the date of enactment, the Act should be applied to sentences that were vacated before or after the enactment, as long as the original vacated sentence was inconsistent with the First Step Act’s prohibition of stacking second or subsequent convictions under the same indictment.

Download

Share

COinS