In United States v. Buenrostro, --- F.3d ---, No. 16-10499 (9th Cir. 2018), President Obama commuted the defendant's sentence from life to 360 months.
The defendant then moved for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). The district court denied the motion.
The Court affirmed, holding the defendant was ineligible for a sentence modification under § 3582(c) because he was originally sentenced based on a statutory mandatory minimum, not based on a sentencing range. And nothing about the commutation changed that fact.
The Court further held the commutation did not create a new judgment, and thus the defendant remained subject to the restrictions on second-or-successive motions under § 2255.
