UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CARMELINA VERA ROJAS (2012)

We previously vacated the panels' opinions to rehear these appeals en banc.   United States v. Rojas, 659 F.3d 1055 (11th Cir.2011);  United States v. Hudson, 659 F.3d 1056 (11th Cir.2011).   The issue before us in both cases was whether the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which raised the quantities of crack cocaine required to trigger mandatory-minimum penalties under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1), applies to defendants sentenced after the Act's effective date of August 3, 2010, but whose conduct occurred before that date.

On June 21, 2012, the United States Supreme Court answered the question and held that the more lenient mandatory-minimums in the Act do apply to all of those defendants sentenced after August 3, 2010, when the Act took effect.   Dorsey v. United States, Nos. 11–5683;  11–5721, 2012 WL 2344463 (U.S. June 21, 2012).

Accordingly, we now vacate the defendants' sentences, and remand both appeals back to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida for re-sentencing consistent with the decision by the Supreme Court.

VACATED and REMANDED.

BY THE COURT: