UNITED STATES v. SEALS (2018)

[Unpublished]

Federal inmate Derrick Seals, who is serving a statutory mandatory minimum sentence, directly appeals after the district court ¹ denied his 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) motion for a sentence reduction. His counsel has moved for leave to withdraw, and has filed a brief, asserting that the district court erred by denying Seals's motion without conducting an evidentiary hearing.

After careful consideration, see United States v. Long, 757 F.3d 762, 763 (8th Cir. 2014) (noting that a legal conclusion as to whether § 3582(c)(2) authorizes a modification is reviewed de novo, and that a discretionary decision as to whether to grant an authorized modification is reviewed for an abuse of discretion), we conclude that Seals could not have obtained a sentence reduction because the district court had already imposed a statutory minimum sentence, see United States v. Peters, 524 F.3d 905, 907 (8th Cir. 2008) (per curiam) (concluding that a sentence reduction was not authorized because the prisoner had received a statutory mandatory minimum sentence). Consequently, no error occurred, and an evidentiary hearing could not have made a difference.

We thus affirm the judgment, and we grant counsel's motion to withdraw.

FOOTNOTES

1.   The Honorable Brian C. Wimes, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri.

PER CURIAM.