United States v. Fernandez

SENTENCING MEMORANDUM

ADELMAN, District Judge.

In the early 1990s, defendant Daniel Fernandez was convicted of two small drug sales, for which he received relatively short prison terms. Based on those prior offenses, when the government indicted him on a charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine in 2004, defendant faced a guideline prison term of 188-235 months as a career offender, twice the sentence the guidelines would otherwise have recommended. Because this case presented an example of how the career offender guideline can conflict with the purposes of sentencing under 18…