This Court has long recognized that when a State brings its judicial power to bear on an indigent defendant in a criminal proceeding, it must take steps to assure that the defendant has a fair opportunity to present his defense. This elementary principle, grounded in significant part on the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process guarantee of fundamental fairness, derives from the belief that justice cannot be equal where, simply as a result of his poverty, a defendant is denied the opportunity to participate meaningfully in a judicial proceeding in which his liberty is at stake.Justice Thurgood Marshall,
Ake v. Oklahoma, 470 U.S. 68,76 (1985)

Sixth Circuit Clarifies Defendants Who Meet Career Offender Criteria Can Benefit from the FSA Sentencing Guidelines

On May 8, 2012, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit remanded for resentencing the case of United States v. Jackson because of the new sentencing guidelines promulgated as a result of the Fair Sentencing Act, which President Obama signed into law on August 3, 2010. The opinion for the first time clarifies that defendants who meet career offender criteria can nevertheless benefit from the lower sentencing ranges embodied in the new sentencing guidelines. To read more about this, please see our link under Law – Case Law – Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Sixth Circuit Clarifies Defendants Who Meet Career Offender Criteria Can Benefit from the FSA Sentencing Guidelines