United States v. Burns

COLLOTON, Circuit Judge,

with whom

LOKEN, Chief Judge, and RILEY and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges, join, dissenting.

In a series of cases beginning with United States v. Haack, 403 F.3d 997 (8th Cir.2005), United States v. Dalton, 404 F.3d 1029 (8th Cir.2005), and United States v. Pizano, 403 F.3d 991 (8th Cir.2005), this court was called upon to decide whether a district court, acting under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e), abused its discretion by granting unreasonable sentence reductions below a statutory minimum term based on a defendant’s substantial assistance. These decisions, culminating in United States…