United States v. McClain, No. 21-2090 (7th Cir. 2021)
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McClain pleaded guilty to drug charges and violating the conditions of his supervised release. He was also sentenced in state court to 20 years for failure to report an accident involving death. He was sentenced to 120 months in the distribution case; 24 months to be served concurrent to the state sentence and the remaining 96 months consecutive to it. In his delivery case, the court imposed a sentence of 24 months consecutive to both the distribution and state sentences. In 2013, the Seventh Circuit vacated: the district court resentenced McClain. The written judgments, however, were inconsistent with the oral pronouncements. In 2016, following U.S.S.G. Amendment 782, McClain's distribution sentence was reduced, under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2), to 70 months, to run concurrent to the delivery sentence; 24 months would run concurrent to the state sentence. In 2021, the court corrected the 2016 errors.
McClain was scheduled to be released in June 2021. In April, he moved in with his family and secured employment. Meanwhile, the government moved under FRCP 36, to correct clerical errors in the judgment. The district court entered an amended judgment in the distribution case. McClain was sent back to prison to serve 18 additional months. The Seventh Circuit ordered McClain’s release and vacated. The changes to his sentences were not merely clerical, so the district court erred by “correcting” the sentences under Rule 36.
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