United States of America v. Clarence M. Green, Jr.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with possession with intent to distribute 5 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine base, in the form commonly known as crack, a Schedule Ii controlled substance.





This particular case involves several just such intricate questions, which the Court is obligated to consider and untangle in turn. To hegin with, the Court must apply the nuanced and at times confounding[1] "categorical approach" to determine whether the advisory "career offender" provisions of the federal Sentencing Guidelines apply to the Defendant in this case. But the Court's application of the categorical approach is further complicated here by the question of whether a decades-old precedential panel opinion of our Court of Appeals remains "good law" in the face of a more recent en banc decision of that same court that substantially reworked when and how a federal sentencing court is to consider the application notes-or "commentary"-to the Sentencing



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Guidelines. That later en banc decision appears to have knocked the proverbial pins out from under the prior panel opinion's reasoning-reasoning which already appeared for other reasons to run counter to a string of Supreme Court and Third Circuit decisions before and after that fall squarely on the same topic, The defendant in this case, Clarence M. Green, Jr., was sentenced in 2006 to 300 months' imprisonment for drug- and firearm-related offenses. (ECF No. 112.) In July of 2020, this Court determined that a portion of Mr. Green's sentence, specifically that part which related to an Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA") enhancement, was unconstitutional in light of Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. 591 (2015), and United States v. Mayo, 901 F,3d 218 (3d Cir. 2018). This Court granted Mr. Green's petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, vacated his sentence at Count 4, and determined that Mr. Green was entitled to a full resentencing hearing. (ECF Nos. 308-09.)...

07/08/2022 349 OPINION as to CLARENCE M. GREEN, JR. Signed by Chief Judge Mark R. Hornak on 7/8/22. (bdb) (Entered: 07/08/2022)

07/08/2022 350 ORDER as to CLARENCE M. GREEN, JR. For the reasons set out in the Court's 349 Opinion of this date, the Government's 320 Objections to 316 Revisions to the Final Presentence Investigation Report are SUSTAINED. The Court concludes that Mr. Green is a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2 and will resentence him accordingly. This matter will be referred to the Probation Office for the preparation and docketing of an updated, supplemental addendum to the Final Presentence Investigation Report that includes at least a calculation of the Sentencing Guidelines consistent with the Court's Opinion. Such supplemental addendum shall be completed within thirty (30) days of the date of this Order. Signed by Chief Judge Mark R. Hornak on 7/8/22. (bdb) (Entered: 07/08/2022)