UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, │ Plaintiff-Appellee, │ > No. 21-5803 │ v. │ │ STEPHEN D. AKRIDGE, │ Defendant-Appellant. │ │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga. No. 1:00-cr-00081-2—Travis Randall McDonough, District Judge.

Decided and Filed: March 13, 2023

Before: McKEAGUE, THAPAR, and LARSEN, Circuit Judges.

_________________

COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Jennifer Niles Coffin, FEDERAL DEFENDER SERVICES OF EASTERN TENNESSEE, INC., Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellant. Debra A. Breneman, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Knoxville, Tennessee, for Appellee. _________________

OPINION _________________

THAPAR, Circuit Judge. When Stephen Akridge requested resentencing under the First Step Act, he represented that he remained a career offender under the Sentencing Guidelines. Citing Akridge’s concession, serious criminal conduct, and post-sentencing misconduct, the district court declined to reduce his sentence. We affirm. No. 21-5803 United States v. Akridge Page 2

I.

In 2001, a jury convicted Akridge of four offenses: (1) conspiring to distribute at least 50 grams of crack cocaine; (2) possessing with intent to distribute crack cocaine; (3) possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime; and (4) possessing a firearm as a felon. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g), 924(c)(1)(A), (e)(1); 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846.

Because Akridge had prior convictions for aggravated assault and possession of cocaine, the district court sentenced him as a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. As a career offender, Akridge received a criminal history category of VI, and his base offense level was enhanced from 32 to 37. This yielded a then-mandatory Guidelines range of 30 years’ to life imprisonment for Akridge’s drug-trafficking offenses. Akridge also was subject to a mandatory consecutive 25-year sentence for using a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, since he had a prior conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). And finally, he faced a 10-year concurrent sentence for his felon-in-possession charge.

All told, the court sentenced Akridge to 55 years’ imprisonment: 30 years for his drug offenses, a concurrent 10-year term for his felon-in-possession offense, and a consecutive 25-year term for possessing a firearm in furtherance of his drug offenses. We affirmed. See United States v. Akridge, 346 F.3d 618, 633 (6th Cir. 2003).

Congress subsequently passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which reduced the sentencing disparity between crack- and powder-cocaine penalties. Pub. L. No. 111-220, § 2, 124 Stat. 2372, 2372 (2010). And in the First Step Act, Congress made this change retroactive. Pub. L. No. 115-391, § 404, 132 Stat. 5194, 5222 (2018). Citing these legal developments and his post- conviction rehabilitative efforts, Akridge ask