CINCINNATI, OH – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has denied Amir Karim Beigali’s appeal seeking a sentence reduction based on changes under the First Step Act and amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines.
Beigali, currently serving a 35-year federal sentence for attempting to possess cocaine and for a second conviction of using a firearm in relation to a drug-trafficking crime, argued that recent legal changes—particularly the First Step Act’s revision to the “stacking” provision under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)—should entitle him to a sentence reduction. He also cited Amendments 814 and 821 to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which address unusually long sentences and criminal history scoring.
The Sixth Circuit upheld the district court’s decision, finding that Beigali’s 1997 firearm conviction was already final at the time of his second § 924(c) offense, making him ineligible for relief under the amended law. The court also ruled that Beigali had forfeited arguments related to the sentencing guideline amendments by failing to raise them on appeal. Even if he had, the court held that those changes would not alter the statutorily mandated 25-year sentence he received for the firearm charge.
Citing precedent from United States v. Richardson and its own prior ruling in Beigali’s earlier appeal, the court concluded that his claims were precluded under the law-of-the-case doctrine.
