UNITED STATES v. FILES (2021)

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Michael Jerome FILES, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 19-11074

Decided: May 21, 2021

Before JORDAN, JILL PRYOR and GRANT, Circuit Judges.

Scott Alan Gray, The University of Alabama System, Tuscaloosa, AL, Oliver McDonald, Christopher John Bodnar, U.S. Attorney Service - Southern District of Alabama, U.S. Attorney's Office, Mobile, AL, for Plaintiff-Appellee Caleb C. Wolanek, Maynard Cooper & Gale, PC, Birmingham, AL, for Defendant-Appellant

In the district court, Michael Jerome Files requested a sentence reduction under § 404 of the First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391, 132 Stat. 5194, 5222. The district court denied the motion, concluding that he was ineligible for a sentence reduction. Files has appealed.

When the district court denied Files's motion, it did not have the benefit of our decision in United States v. Jones, 962 F.3d 1290 (11th Cir. 2020). We do, and now that we do, the government has conceded that Files is eligible for a sentence reduction under § 404 of the First Step Act. Having reviewed Jones and the record in this case, we accept the government's concession, vacate the district court's orders denying a sentence reduction, and remand for further proceedings so that the district court may decide whether to exercise its discretion under § 404 to award Files a sentence reduction. See id. at 1304.

VACATED and REMANDED.

PER CURIAM:

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