Spears v. United States

Steven Spears was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute at least 50 grams of cocaine base and at least 500 grams of *262powder cocaine, in violation of 21 U. S. C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A), (b)(1)(B), 846. At sentencing, the District Court determined that the drug quantities attributable to Spears yielded an offense level of 38, that his criminal history justified placing him in the Guidelines’ criminal history category IV, and that the resulting advisory Guidelines sentencing range was 324 to 405 months’ imprisonment. The District Court was of the view that the Guidelines’ 100:1 ratio between…