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Fernandez v. United States

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Supreme Court of the United States
Fernandez v. United States
Docket number: 24-556
Term: 2025
Court: United States Supreme Court
Important dates
Argument: November 12, 2025
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts • Clarence Thomas • Samuel Alito • Sonia Sotomayor • Elena Kagan • Neil Gorsuch • Brett Kavanaugh • Amy Coney Barrett • Ketanji Brown Jackson

Fernandez v. United States is a case scheduled for argument before the Supreme Court of the United States on November 12, 2025, during the court's October 2025-2026 term.

HIGHLIGHTS
  • The issue: The case concerns discretionary sentence reductions under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). Click here to learn more about the case's background.
  • The questions presented: "WHETHER A COMBINATION OF ‘EXTRAORDINARY AND COMPELLING REASONS’ THAT MAY WARRANT A DISCRETIONARY SENTENCE REDUCTION UNDER 18 U. S. C. §3582(c)(1)(A) CAN INCLUDE REASONS THAT MAY ALSO BE ALLEGED AS GROUNDS FOR VACATUR OF A SENTENCE UNDER 28 U. S. C. §2255."[1]
  • The outcome: The appeal is pending adjudication before the U.S. Supreme Court.


    • The case came on a writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. To review the lower court's opinion, click here.

    Background

    Case summary

    The following are the parties to this case:[2]

    • Petitioner: Joe Fernandez
      • Legal counsel: Benjamin Gruenstein (Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP)
    • Respondent: United States

    The following summary of the case was published by Oyez:

    “ Joe Fernandez participated as a backup shooter in a 2000 murder-for-hire scheme in the Bronx. On February 22, 2000, Patrick Darge hired him to help kill Arturo Cuellar and Idelfonso Vivero Flores, two Mexican drug cartel members who had come to New York City to collect approximately $6.5 million owed by drug trafficker Jeffrey Minaya for 274 kilograms of cocaine. When Darge's gun jammed after shooting Cuellar in the head, Fernandez fired fourteen shots in the apartment building lobby, nine hitting the victims. He received $40,000 for his participation. After eleven years on the run, Fernandez surrendered to police in October 2011.

    Unlike his co-defendants who pleaded guilty and cooperated with the government, Fernandez proceeded to trial in 2013. The government's key witness was Patrick Darge, who admitted during cross-examination to lying to authorities in previous cases. Despite this admission, the jury convicted Fernandez of participating in a murder-for-hire conspiracy resulting in two deaths and aiding and abetting the use of a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence. In October 2014, he received a mandatory life sentence, while his cooperating co-defendants received significantly lighter sentences: Darge (30 years), Reyes (25 years), Minaya (15 years), and Rivera (2 years).

    The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York originally sentenced Fernandez, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed his conviction on direct appeal in 2016. In 2021, the district court vacated one of his convictions but left the mandatory life sentence intact. When Fernandez filed a compassionate release motion citing his possible innocence and sentencing disparity, the district court granted it in 2022, but the Second Circuit reversed this decision. [3]

    		”

    To learn more about this case, see the following:

    Timeline

    The following timeline details key events in this case:

    • November 12, 2025: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument.
    • April 28, 2025: The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.
    • January 7, 2025: The Hain Celestial Group, Inc., et al. appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
    • May 28, 2024: The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas’s judgment denying the Palmquists’ motion to remand. It also vacated and remanded the case to the Texas state court.

    Questions presented

    The petitioner presented the following questions to the court:[1]

    Questions presented:
    “ “WHETHER A COMBINATION OF ‘EXTRAORDINARY AND COMPELLING REASONS’ THAT MAY WARRANT A DISCRETIONARY SENTENCE REDUCTION UNDER 18 U. S. C. §3582(c)(1)(A) CAN INCLUDE REASONS THAT MAY ALSO BE ALLEGED AS GROUNDS FOR VACATUR OF A SENTENCE UNDER 28 U. S. C. §2255.”[3] ”

    Oral argument

    Audio

    Audio of the case will be posted here when it is made available.

    Transcript

    A transcript of the case will be posted here when it is made available.

    Outcome

    The case is pending adjudication before the U.S. Supreme Court.

    October term 2025-2026

    See also: Supreme Court cases, October term 2025-2026

    The Supreme Court will begin hearing cases for the term on October 6, 2025. The court's yearly term begins on the first Monday in October and lasts until the first Monday in October the following year. The court generally releases the majority of its decisions by mid-June.[4]


    See also

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Supreme Court of the United States, "24-556 FERNANDEZ V. UNITED STATES QP", April 28, 2025
    2. ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, "No. 24-556 Fernandez v. United States" accessed July 16, 2025
    3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
    4. ↑ SupremeCourt.gov, "The Supreme Court at Work: The Term and Caseload," accessed January 24, 2022
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