8th Circuit decides N.D. case Monday, March 29, 2021

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has affirmed the sentence in a North Dakota drug distribution case. The court held that even if defendant is correct that the evidence did not support an upward departure to a life sentence, the district court did not abuse its substantial discretion in, alternatively, varying upward to the life sentence; the sentence is substantively reasonable; already-accounted-for factors can still form the basis for a variance.

Read the court's opinion at: https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/21/03/201266U.pdf