CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
YUN ZHENG aka Wendy Zheng; YAN QIU WU aka Jason Wu,
Defendants-Appellants.
   No. 22-5516
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at Covington.
No. 2:21-cr-00051—David L. Bunning, District Judge.
Argued: October 18, 2023
Decided and Filed: November 28, 2023
Before: CLAY, KETHLEDGE, and MATHIS, Circuit Judges.


_________________________
OPINION
_________________________

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. A jury convicted Yun Zheng and Yan Qiu Wu on four counts of harboring illegal noncitizens for commercial gain, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii) and (a)(1)(A)(v)(II).1 Zheng and Wu now appeal, challenging the district court’s jury instructions. Specifically, they argue that the district court: (1) erred in instructing the jury on the meaning of “harboring” by not including a requirement that Zheng and Wu had acted intentionally and knowingly in shielding the illegal noncitizens from law enforcement; and (2) invaded the province of the jury by giving examples of “harboring” in the jury instructions. Finding no error, we affirm.



CLICK HERE FOR FULL TEXT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
CLARENCE GOODWIN,
Defendant-Appellant.
   No. 22-5845
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
No. 1:08-cr-00104-1—Curtis L. Collier, District Judge.
Decided and Filed: November 28, 2023
Before: WHITE, NALBANDIAN, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.


_________________________
OPINION
_________________________

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. In 2009, Clarence Goodwin received a 262-month sentence— one at the bottom of his guidelines range—for conspiring to distribute crack cocaine. The First Step Act of 2018 allowed defendants like Goodwin to seek a lower sentence based on changes to the sentencing laws that occurred after their offense. But the district court denied Goodwin’s motion for a reduced sentence primarily because his guidelines range remained the same even after considering these retroactive statutory changes. Goodwin now argues that the district court committed a procedural error by denying relief in a cursory order. He also argues that it committed a substantive error because his rehabilitation efforts (when combined with other legal changes) required the court to issue a below-guidelines sentence. Disagreeing on both fronts, we affirm.