107 F.4th 965
11th Cir.2024Background
- Orestes Hernandez was convicted in 1998 for multiple violent crimes, including three § 924(c) firearm violations, and initially sentenced in 1999, with a resentencing in 2002 after appeal.
- Years later, the district court vacated one of his § 924(c) convictions (following Supreme Court decisions narrowing predicate “crimes of violence”) and ordered a resentencing in 2022.
- Between Hernandez's conviction and resentencing, the First Step Act of 2018 was enacted, modifying the "stacking" of consecutive § 924(c) sentences for defendants without final prior convictions.
- The dispute centers on whether the Act’s more lenient stacking rule applies when an original sentence was imposed before the Act but vacated and resentenced after.
- Both Hernandez and the government argued at resentencing that the new rule should apply, as the prior sentence had been vacated; the district court disagreed.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Does § 403(a) of the First Step Act apply to Hernandez’s resentencing after his pre-Act sentence was vacated? | A vacated sentence is no longer a sentence "imposed as of" the Act’s enactment; thus, Hernandez is eligible for the new anti-stacking rule. | Any sentence pronounced before the Act—even if vacated later—counts as "imposed," excluding Hernandez from the new rule. | A vacated sentence counts as "imposed" under § 403(b); Hernandez ineligible for retroactive application of the anti-stacking rule. |
Key Cases Cited
- United States v. Smith, 967 F.3d 1196 (11th Cir. 2020) (a sentence is "imposed" when pronounced by the district court; supports historical fact approach)
- United States v. Burke, 863 F.3d 1355 (11th Cir. 2017) (a vacated sentence is void and the slate is wiped clean; relied on by dissent)
- Niz-Chavez v. Garland, 593 U.S. 155 (2021) (distinguishing between ordinary and literal statutory meaning)
- Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. 591 (2015) (construing what offenses count as "crimes of violence" for stacked sentencing)
- United States v. Davis, 588 U.S. 445 (2019) (limiting predicate crimes for § 924(c) stacking)