United States v. Koss

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Defendant appealed her sentence of 70 months after pleading guilty to two federal drug offenses. Defendant raised numerous issues on appeal. The court concluded that the district court’s step-by-step application of the 1:167 gram ratio to calculate the marijuana equivalency of the marijuana butter and the brown chunky substance, and the resulting Guidelines-sentencing range, was sound. Therefore, the court concluded that the sentence was not procedurally unreasonable. The court also concluded that defendant's sentence is substantively reasonable where her sentence was within-Guidelines and defendant's argument failed to take into account the totality of the circumstances surrounding the charged offenses. Finally, the court found no ambiguity in the controlling portions of the Guidelines that would warrant application of the rule of lenity. Here, despite defendant's harshness arguments and novel theory related to the scheme of the Guidelines, USSG 2D1.1’s directives regarding the use of the 1:167 gram ratio to calculate the marijuana equivalency of mixtures or substances containing a detectable amount of THC are clear and unambiguous. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Koss" on Justia Law