United States Seventh Circuit

Conviction for conspiracy to distribute cocaine base is affirmed where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's motion to withdraw his guilty plea, as there was no fair and just reason for him to withdraw his plea; 2) there was no clear error in district court's conclusion that defendant conspired to distribute crack cocaine as the Government need not prove that a substance contains sodium bicarbonate in order to establish that a substance is crack. Sentence is vacated and remanded so that district court may take into account the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine when sentencing defendant, and to address fully whether defendant is entitled to an acceptance of responsibility adjustment and whether his state-court conviction for possession of cocaine constitutes relevant conduct for sentencing purposes.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/21/2008
• Decided 02/26/2009
• Published 02/26/2009

Judges

• RIPPLE, Circuit Judge., Before RIPPLE, EVANS and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Steven A. Block (argued), Office of the United States Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiff-Appellee., Beau B. Brindley, Blair Westover (argued), Chicago, IL, for Defendant-Appellant.