{"ID":63699,"name":"Hewitt v. United States","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/cases\/2024\/23-1002","view_count":0,"docket_number":"23-1002","additional_docket_numbers":["23-1150"],"manner_of_jurisdiction":"Writ of \u003Ci\u003Ecertiorari\u003C\/i\u003E","first_party":"Tony R. Hewitt","second_party":"United States of America","timeline":[{"event":"Granted","dates":[1719896400],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/55527"},{"event":"Argued","dates":[1736748000],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/55552"},{"event":"Decided","dates":[1750914000],"href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/case_timeline\/case_timeline\/55679"}],"lower_court":{"ID":10,"name":"United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit","href":"https:\/\/api.oyez.org\/taxonomy\/term\/10"},"facts_of_the_case":"\u003Cp\u003EIn 2009, Corey Deyon Duffey, Jarvis Dupree Ross, and Tony R. Hewitt were convicted of multiple counts of conspiracy, attempted bank robbery, bank robbery, and using firearms in furtherance of these crimes under 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 924(c). After appeals and resentencing, they received mandatory minimum sentences of 5 years for their first \u00a7 924(c) conviction and 25 years for each subsequent conviction, as per the law at that time which allowed \u201cstacking\u201d of these charges.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EIn 2020, following the Supreme Court\u2019s decision in United States v. Davis, the appellants successfully filed for habeas relief. The district court vacated their \u00a7 924(c) conspiracy convictions and ordered resentencing. Before their resentencing in 2022, the appellants argued that \u00a7 403 of the First Step Act of 2018, which eliminated sentence stacking for \u00a7 924(c) convictions, should apply to their cases. The government initially opposed this view but later changed its position to support the application of \u00a7 403. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected their challenges and affirmed the convictions.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","question":"\u003Cp\u003EDoes the First Step Act\u2019s sentencing reduction provision apply to a defendant whose original sentence was imposed before the Act\u2019s enactment, but was later vacated and resentenced after the Act took effect?\u003C\/p\u003E\n","conclusion":"\u003Cp\u003EBecause a sentence \u201chas...been imposed\u201d for purposes of \u00a7 403(b) of the First Step Act only if the sentence is extant (i.e., has not been vacated), the Act\u2019s more lenient penalties apply to defendants whose previous 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 924(c) sentences have been vacated and who need to be resentenced following the Act\u2019s enactment. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson authored the 5-4 majority opinion of the Court.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EWhen Congress employs the present-perfect tense (\u201chas been imposed\u201d), it addresses whether something has continuing relevance to the present, not merely whether it occurred as a historical fact. The present-perfect tense can refer to either \u201can act, state, or condition that is now completed\u201d or \u201ca past action that comes up to and touches the present,\u201d but in both senses it conveys that the event in question continues to be true or valid. A sentence has been imposed for \u00a7 403(b) purposes only if it remains extant\u2014that is, has not been vacated. This interpretation aligns with background legal principles that vacated court orders are void ab initio and lack prospective legal effect.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EBackground principles confirm this interpretation. When interpreting statutes, courts recognize that Congress legislates against certain unexpressed presumptions, including that vacated court orders are treated as though they never occurred. Just as defendants with vacated prior felony convictions are not precluded from possessing weapons under the federal felon-in-possession ban, \u00a7 403(b) retroactivity does not exclude those whose prior sentences have been vacated. The statute\u2019s use of present-perfect rather than past-perfect tense, especially when adjacent provisions use simple past tense, reinforces that only past sentences with continued validity preclude application of the Act\u2019s new penalties.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003Cp\u003EJustice Samuel Alito authored a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, arguing that the present-perfect tense in \u00a7403(b) refers to the historical fact of whether a sentence had been imposed as of the Act\u2019s enactment date, regardless of subsequent vacatur.\u003C\/p\u003E\n","advocates":[{"advocate":{"ID":62609,"name":"Michael B. 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