United States Eighth Circuit

In a drug possession prosecution, the district court's denial of defendant's motion to reduce his sentence is vacated where, because a conviction is not a "prior felony" within the meaning of U.S.S.G. section 4B1.1 unless it receives criminal history points under subsection (a), (b), or (c) of section 4A1.1, and because it was uncertain whether defendant's convictions for resisting arrest received points under one of those subsections, the rule of lenity resulted in a shorter sentence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/23/2010
• Published 02/23/2010

Judges

• MURPHY, Circuit Judge., Before MURPHY and BYE, Circuit Judges, and STROM,District Judge.

Court

• United States Eighth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Lee Lawless, AFPD, argued, St. Louis, MO, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Thomas Joseph Mehan, AUSA, argued, St. Louis, MO, for Appellee.