In U.S. v. Clay, No. 06-10088 (Apr. 3, 2007), the Court (Carnes, Pryor, Farris b.d.) affirmed the imposition of a 60-month sentence on a defendant convicted of methamphetamine trafficking, when the advisory Guidelines range was 188-235 months.
The Court first rejected Clay’s challenge to the denial of his motion to suppress. The Court found that the police had reasonable suspicion to pat-down Clay’s person when they saw a shotgun in plain view. The search of Clay’s pocket was also reasonable, because the object the officer felt in Clay’s pocket felt like a screwdriver that might be used as a weapon (it turned out to be an empty barrel from a ball-point pen, which is used for ingesting narcotics).
The Court held that the district court did not err in relying on acquitted conduct in enhancing Clay’s sentence. The resulting increase in the sentence – 3.7 times the bottom of the Guideline range – was not so extraordinary as to violate Due Process.
Rejecting a government appeal, the Court held that the sentence was not unreasonable. The Court reiterated that extraordinary reductions from the Guidelines based on § 3553(a) "must be supported by extraordinary circumstances." Here, the district court found extraordinary rehabilitation in the time after Clay’s indictment, and before his conviction. Clay worked a second job, inspired fellow drug addicts to overcome their addiction, and visited a juvenile detention center to encourage young people to change their lives.
