United States v. Macias Saenz, 8:18-cr-00246

Francisco Antonio Dominguez Vaca was convicted and sentenced to 108 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a large quantity of cocaine while aboard a vessel subject to U.S. jurisdiction.
His guidelines range was 135-168 months, but the court granted a substantial downward variance due to his poverty and need for vocational training.
He did not have any criminal history points and qualified for a safety valve exception, making him eligible under Amendment 821 of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines for a potential sentence reduction.
Dominguez Vaca filed a motion, pro se, under Amendment 821 for a sentence reduction and requested good-conduct credit recalculation; these were opposed by the government.
The U.S. Probation Office determined a further reduction would place the sentence below the amended guidelines range minimum, and the Federal Defender declined to pursue relief, stating the original sentence was already the lowest permissible.
The court denied the sentence reduction and dismissed the good-conduct recalculation request for lack of jurisdiction, as Dominguez Vaca is incarcerated in Illinois.

Issue	Dominguez Vaca's Argument	Government's Argument	Held
Application of Amendment 821	Eligible for a reduction	Further reduction is not allowed	Denied
Minimum permissible sentence	Sentence can be reduced	Already at guideline minimum	Denied
Good-conduct credit recalculation	Recalculation is warranted	Court lacks jurisdiction	Dismissed
Sentencing factors under § 3553(a)	Should consider new factors	Sentence already reflects factors	No reduction

No published case law is cited in the opinion excerpt provided. Primary authorities referenced are statutes and Sentencing Guidelines sections.