Case: 19-30706 Document: 00515616282 Page: 1 Date Filed: 10/26/2020
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
FILED
October 26, 2020
No. 19-30706 Lyle W. Cayce
Summary Calendar Clerk
United States of America,
Plaintiff—Appellant/Cross-Appellee,
versus
Robert Lee Thompson, Jr.,
Defendant—Appellee/Cross-Appellant.
Appeals from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Louisiana
USDC No. 3:07-CR-30034-1
Before Clement, Higginson, and Engelhardt, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam:*
In 2008, Robert Lee Thompson, Jr., federal prisoner # 66619-179,
pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute 50 grams
or more of cocaine base, and the district court sentenced him to 240 months
of imprisonment and a 10-year term of supervised release. In 2019, the
*
Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this
opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited
circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4.
Case: 19-30706 Document: 00515616282 Page: 2 Date Filed: 10/26/2020
No. 19-30706
district court granted Thompson’s motion to be resentenced under the First
Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391, 132 Stat. 5194 (2018), and resentenced
him to 180 months of imprisonment and an eight-year term of supervised
release.
The Government appeals, arguing that Thompson was ineligible for
relief because eligibility for a sentence reduction under Section 404 of the
First Step Act is based upon the actual offense conduct rather than the statute
of conviction. We generally review a district court’s ruling on a motion for a
sentence reduction under the First Step Act for abuse of discretion. United
States v. Jackson, 945 F.3d 315, 319 (5th Cir. 2019), cert. denied, 2020 WL
1906710 (U.S. Apr. 20, 2020) (No. 19-8036). However, when, as here, the
district court’s “determination turns on the meaning of a federal statute,”
our review is de novo. Jackson, 945 F.3d at 319 (internal quotation marks and
citation omitted).
The Government concedes this argument is foreclosed under our
decision in Jackson but seeks to preserve the issue for further review. In that
case, we held that “whether an offense is ‘covered’ [under the First Step
Act] depends only on the statute under which the defendant was convicted.”
Id. at 320. We are bound by prior Fifth Circuit decisions until the decision is
explicitly or implicitly overruled by the Supreme Court or this court sitting
en banc. United States v. Segura, 747 F.3d 323, 328 (5th Cir. 2014).
Accordingly the district court did not err in reducing Thompson’s sentence
under the First Step Act. See Jackson, 945 F.3d at 319-20.
The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED.
2