Dorsey v. United States

Under the Federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986 (1986 act), an offender convicted of possessing 500 grams or more of powder cocaine with intent to distribute faced a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. If the offense involved 5,000 grams or more, the minimum sentence was 10 years. Much harsher penalties applied for offenses involving crack cocaine: possession with intent to distribute five grams or more carried a minimum five-year sentence, and offenses involving 50 grams or more carried a minimum 10-year sentence. In 2010, in response to pressure from the United States Sentencing Commission (commission) and law enforcement, Congress enacted the Fair Sentencing Act (FSA), which reduced the disparity between powder-cocaine and crack-cocaine offenses. Under the FSA, the quantities triggering mandatory minimums for crack offenses increased to 28 grams for the five-year minimum and 280 grams for the 10-year minimum. The triggers for powder cocaine remained the same. The FSA took effect on August 3, 2010. It instructed the commission to make required amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines as soon as practicable within 90 days. Corey Hill and Edward Dorsey (defendants) were convicted for crack-cocaine offenses committed in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Both were sentenced in 2010 after the FSA took effect. However, the district judges followed the sentencing guidelines from the 1986 act because it was the act in effect when the offenses were committed. The court of appeals affirmed both decisions, rejecting Hill and Dorsey’s arguments that the FSA’s more lenient sentencing provisions applied to offenders who committed crack-cocaine offenses before August 3, 2010, but were sentenced after that date.