DISCLAIMER: The following unofficial case summaries are prepared by the clerk's office
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171238P.pdf 04/04/2018 United States v. Jeffrey Ritchison
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 17-1238
U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska - Omaha
[PUBLISHED] [Kelly, Author, with Benton, Shepherd, Circuit Judges]
Criminal case - Sentencing. Where defendant's motion to vacate was granted
under Johnson because his two prior burglary convictions no longer
qualified as ACCA predicate offenses, the district court did not err in
imposing the 10-year sentence the parties had agreed to under the terms of
the original Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement in the event the ACCA did not
apply; the district court had accepted the agreement, which contained the
alternative sentences stipulated to by the parties, and there is no
provision in the rules that allows the court to reject or modify the
agreement, absent fraud on the court; under the circumstances presented,
an appropriate correction to the sentence was to enforce the parties'
binding agreement, which specifically contemplated the possibility that
defendant's criminal history might not trigger the enhanced penalties
provided by the ACCA; the doctrine of mutual mistake is not applicable in
the context of plea agreements, and even if it was, the court did not err
in enforcing the agreement; the district court did not abuse its
discretion in weighing and considering the 3553(a) factors in resentencing
defendant.