On the lighter side, sort of

You would not think a case about drug sentencing and a defendant with AIDS would make for light reading, but the Eleventh Circuit’s decision last week in US v. Barfield, No. 03-14077 (11th Cir. Jan. 14, 2005), has a certain gallows humor quality.  I am thankful to a reader for bringing it to my attention.

In Barfield, the defendant in December 1994 pled guilty to a crack cocaine offense and received, after the benefit of a downward departure because of her cooperation and HIV status, a sentence of 30 months’ imprisonment.  Then, in January 1995, the defendant managed to stay execution of her sentence by claiming (falsely) that she had only six months to live.  Eight years later, a spurned boyfriend turned her in, and Barfield then asserted based on a variety of legal theories that she could not, after all this time, be incarcerated.  As detailed in the 11th Circuit’s Barfield decision, though the defendant may deserve an award for chutzpah, she did not prevail in her efforts to stay out of prison.

Now I am wondering if defendant Barfield might now try to seek resentencing based on Booker.