In United States v. Tyrone Smith, No. 6:17-cr-147-Orl-31KRS (M.D. Fla. Feb. 27, 2018), Judge Gregory A. Presnell sentenced Tryone Smith—a defendant facing a career offender guideline range of 151-188 months imprisonment—to 30 months in prison. The 30-month sentence was below Mr. Smith’s non-career offender adjusted guideline range of 37-47 months for distribution of a mixture containing a detectable amount of carfentanil. In granting such a substantial variance from the advisory guidelines range, the District Court joined what he described as a “growing chorus of federal judges who reject application of the career offender guideline in certain cases.” In addition to citing various indiviudal factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553 to support its sentence, the District Court pointed to "evidence of the policy problem with [USSG§] 4B1.1 [it] found in the National Wide Sentencing Statisitcs" from the United States Sentencing Commission, among other things.
Mr. Smith’s sentencing hearing was on February 9, 2018. After reviewing the presentence report, Smith’s sentencing memorandum, and hearing the argument of counsel, the District Court continued the hearing to consider the appropriate sentence. A couple weeks later the Court prepared a Bench Sentencing Opinion which was initially filed under seal with the statement of reasons. That opinion was subsequently unsealed sua sponte by the Court on April 3, 2018 and is available on Pacer in the Middle District of Florida as Docket Entry 97.
The Training Division Provides sentencing resource materials to defender and CJA counsel to help them argue for the best possible sentence here.