United States v. Hawkins

The defendant, Michael Hawkins, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and of two counts of using a communications facility to commit a felony and was sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of 240 months in prison. On appeal, he originally contended that a portion of his trial should have been severed from that of a co-defendant, that he was denied a speedy trial, and that the sentence imposed upon him violated legal principles enunciated in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000).

At oral argument, however, the defendant conceded that he had…