United States v. Carvell

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

William Carvell, a fifty year old Maine farmer, was sentenced to prison for seventy months on marijuana charges. The question on appeal is whether the Sentencing Guidelines prohibited the trial judge from exercising discretion to depart downward in the sentence given. Carvell pled guilty to growing marijuana, saying it was for his own use to combat his depression and suicidal tendencies. The trial judge concluded that, as a matter of law, the Guidelines’ “drug dependency” prohibition overrode any downward departure under the “lesser harms” provision. The judge also noted…