United States v. Clifford Pilcher

United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 14-1826 ___________________________ United States of America, lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Clifford Pilcher, lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas - Fayetteville ____________ Submitted: December 19, 2014 Filed: December 29, 2014 [Unpublished] ____________ Before SMITH, BOWMAN, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges. ____________ PER CURIAM. Clifford Pilcher directly appeals after he pled guilty to a drug-related offense and the district court1 sentenced him within his calculated advisory Guidelines range 1 The Honorable Timothy L. Brooks, United States District Judge for the Western District of Arkansas. to 80 months in prison. His counsel has moved to withdraw and has filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), challenging the reasonableness of Pilcher’s sentence. Pilcher, pro se, has filed a document citing Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28(j), and requesting that his sentence be vacated and his case remanded to the district court so that he can be resentenced in accordance with a recently adopted Guidelines amendment which lowers the base offense levels for certain drug-related offenses. Upon careful review, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing Pilcher. See United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461-62 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (describing appellate review of sentences). We also decline to grant Pilcher’s pro se request. See 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) (permitting motion for modification of prison term based on lowered sentencing range). Finally, having independently reviewed the record under Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75 (1988), we have found no nonfrivolous issues. Accordingly, the judgment is affirmed. We also grant counsel’s motion to withdraw. ______________________________ -2-