Opinion
No. 18-1255
08-27-2018
United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Derrick T. Seals Defendant - Appellant
Appeal from United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City [Unpublished] Before WOLLMAN, GRUENDER, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM.
Federal inmate Derrick Seals, who is serving a statutory mandatory minimum sentence, directly appeals after the district court denied his 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) motion for a sentence reduction. His counsel has moved for leave to withdraw, and has filed a brief, asserting that the district court erred by denying Seals's motion without conducting an evidentiary hearing.
The Honorable Brian C. Wimes, United States District Judge for the Western District of Missouri. --------
After careful consideration, see United States v. Long, 757 F.3d 762, 763 (8th Cir. 2014) (noting that a legal conclusion as to whether § 3582(c)(2) authorizes a modification is reviewed de novo, and that a discretionary decision as to whether to grant an authorized modification is reviewed for an abuse of discretion), we conclude that Seals could not have obtained a sentence reduction because the district court had already imposed a statutory minimum sentence, see United States v. Peters, 524 F.3d 905, 907 (8th Cir. 2008) (per curiam) (concluding that a sentence reduction was not authorized because the prisoner had received a statutory mandatory minimum sentence). Consequently, no error occurred, and an evidentiary hearing could not have made a difference.
We thus affirm the judgment, and we grant counsel's motion to withdraw.