United States v. Alvin Fair, 616 F. App'x 549

Alvin Dwight Fair was convicted of multiple drug and firearms offenses and sentenced in 2006 to 300 months plus supervised release terms; this court affirmed the conviction on direct appeal.
Fair filed a § 2255 motion after United States v. Simmons, arguing prior state convictions did not qualify as felonies, leading the district court to vacate his § 922(g) conviction and order resentencing.
At resentencing the Guidelines range was recalculated (advisory 135–168 months) with a mandatory consecutive 5-year § 924(c) sentence; supervised-release statutory minimums/maximums were reduced compared to the original judgment.
Fair sought a downward variance arguing police engaged in sentencing-manipulation by allowing subsequent drug transactions instead of arresting him earlier, which he said increased his Guidelines exposure.
The district court denied the variance (on the merits) and reimposed a sentence at the low end of the Guidelines and reaffirmed the original supervised-release terms.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed the sentence except it vacated and remanded the supervised-release terms for Counts 1, 7, 8, and 11 because they exceeded applicable statutory limits.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether the district court erred by refusing to consider a sentencing-manipulation variance	Fair: police set up subsequent transactions instead of arresting him, increasing Guidelines; merits a downward variance	Govt: court correctly rejected manipulation claim; such claims are viewed skeptically and facts here are not outrageous	Court: No procedural error — district court had discretion and rejected the claim on the merits; manipulation claim inapplicable on these facts
Whether the court erred by reimposing the original supervised-release terms at resentencing	Fair: reimposition continued previously imposed terms	Govt: conceded district court erred — some reimposed terms exceeded statutory maxima after Simmons-based recalculation	Held: Error was plain and affected substantial rights; vacated supervised-release terms for Counts 1, 7, 8, 11 and remanded for correction

Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) (standard for reasonableness review of sentences)
United States v. Simmons, 649 F.3d 237 (4th Cir. 2011) (interpreting when prior convictions qualify as felonies for federal purposes)
United States v. Jones, 18 F.3d 1145 (4th Cir. 1994) (expressing skepticism about sentencing-manipulation claims)
United States v. Good, 25 F.3d 218 (4th Cir. 1994) (interpreting supervised-release term ranges under § 841(b))
United States v. Maxwell, 285 F.3d 336 (4th Cir. 2002) (holding excessive supervised-release term can affect fairness and warrant correction)
Henderson v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 1121 (2013) (standards for exercise of discretion in correcting plain error)