In United States v. Tigua et al., No. 19-10177 (June 26, 2020) (William Pryor, Jordan, Newsom), the Court held—without oral
argument—that Section 402 of the First Step Act does not apply to those who
were adjudicated guilty before the effective date of the Act, even if they were
sentenced after.
Section 402 made the safety valve available to those
convicted under the MDLEA. However, it
applies only to “convictions entered on or after” the enactment of the First Step
Act. The Court rejected the defendants’
argument that a conviction was “entered” upon entry of the judgment after
sentencing . Instead, the Court
concluded that a conviction is “entered” when the defendant is adjudicated
guilty. To reach that conclusion, it
contrasted the language used in Sections 401 and 403. And it rejected the defendants’ reliance on
the Supreme Court’s decisions in Deal and Dorsey.
