Robert Hall, a federal prisoner proceeding pro se and currently serving a 360-month total sentence for crack cocaine offenses, appeals from the district court’s sua sponte denial of a sentence reduction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) and Amendment 782 to the Sentencing Guidelines, and its subsequent denial of his motion to reconsider that order. Hall previously moved for a sentence reduction under Amendments 706 and 750 to the Sentencing Guidelines, which was denied, and we affirmed that decision because the amendments did not lower Hall’s advisory guideline range, since he was sentenced as a career offender. United States v. Hall,
We review de novo the district court’s conclusions regarding the scope of its legal authority under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). United States v. Tellis,
“As a general rule, district courts may not modify a term of imprisonment once it has been imposed, except in specific circumstances delineated in 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c).” United States v. Williams,
In recalculating a sentence under the amended Sentencing Guidelines, the district court “shall determine” the amended guideline range that would have been ap
Amendment 706 to the Sentencing Guidelines — which went into effect on November 1, 2007, and was made retroactive — amended the Drug Quantity Table in U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(c) “to provide a two-level reduction in base offense levels for crack-cocaine offenses.” Moore,
Amendment 782 became effective on November 1, 2014, and was made retroactive by Amendment 788 as of the same date. U.S.S.G. App. C, Amends. 782 & 788; U.S.S.G. § lB1.10(d). The amendment revised the Drug Quantity Table in § 2Dl.l(c), and, in pertinent part, lowered the offense level applicable to offenses involving at least 280 grams but less than 840 grams of cocaine base from 32 to 30. Compare U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(a)(3), (c)(1) (2013), with U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(a)(5), (c)(1); see also U.S.S.G. App. C, Amend. 782.
Under the 2001 version of the Sentencing Guidelines — which were in effect at the time of Hall’s sentencing — a defendant is a career offender if (1) the defendant was at least 18 years old at the time he committed the instant offense of conviction, (2) the instant offense of conviction is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled-substance offense, and (3) the defendant has at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled-substance offense. U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 (2001). If the offense level for a career criminal, as listed in § 4B1.1, “is greater than the offense level otherwise applicable,” the offense level from § 4B1.1 shall apply. U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 .(2001). Of relevance, a career offender who faces a statutory' maximum sentence of life imprisonment would be assigned an offense level of 37, and a career offender’s criminal history “in every case” shall be Category VI. Id. .
If a defendant is a career offender, his base offense level generally is determined under the career-offender guideline in U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 and not the drug-quantity guideline in § 2D1.1. See Moore,
The law-of-the-case doctrine is a rule of practice self-imposed by the court and operates to create efficiency, finality, and obedience within the justice system. United States v. Tamayo,
We’ve previously determined that Hall was originally sentenced as a career offender, and that finding of fact is encompassed by the law-of-the-case doctrine. Anderson,
AFFIRMED.
Notes
. In so doing, we reject the government’s argument that the district court lacked jurisdiction to sua sponte deny relief to Hall under Amendment 782 while Hall’s first appeal was pending in this Court. Whether a district court has jurisdiction to address a particular issue while an appeal is pending depends on whether that issue is already before this Court on appeal or is otherwise inextricably intertwined with the parties' continued litigation of the issue before this Court. See RES-GA Cobblestone, LLC v. Blake Const. & Dev., LLC,
