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Date: 12-23-2014

Case Style: United States of America v. Alvin Stanley Briggs, Jr.

Case Number: 13-CR-01004

Judge: Linda R. Reade

Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa (

Plaintiff's Attorney: Dan Chatham

Defendant's Attorney: Dave Eastman

Description: Cedar Rapids, IA - A man whose conviction for distributing heroin to a person who died of a heroin overdose was overturned earlier this year was sentenced in federal court to serve 30 years in prison.

Alvin Stanley Briggs, Jr., age 51, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after a October 30, 2014, guilty plea to distribution of heroin resulting in death. Briggs initially pled guilty to the charge in June 2013, and was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment in September 2013. His conviction was overturned after the United States Supreme Court ruled in Burrage v. United States that individuals could not be convicted of distributing drugs where death resulted unless the government proved the drugs were the “but for” cause of the death. During his initial plea, Briggs had admitted only that the drugs were a contributing factor in the death of S.R. At the plea hearing in October he admitted that S.R. would have lived but for using the heroin distributed by Briggs.

Briggs was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade. Briggs was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment. A special assessment of $100 was imposed. He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Briggs is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dan Chatham and was investigated by the Platteville, Wisconsin, Police Department, and the Dubuque, Iowa, Drug Task Force.

Outcome: See above

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