Overview
- Professors Douglas A. Berman and John Blume, joined by retired Judge John Gleeson, filed a brief supporting Sean Combs’s appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- The brief argues Judge Arun Subramanian improperly increased the sentence by relying on accusations the jury rejected, invoking the 2024 rule that “not guilty means not guilty.”
- Combs was convicted on two Mann Act counts and acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering, yet received a 50‑month term the professors say exceeds what those convictions typically warrant.
- The scholars ask the court to vacate the sentence and order resentencing without consideration of acquitted conduct, not to release Combs immediately.
- The appeal remains pending with no ruling date indicated, and the outcome could influence how federal courts treat acquitted conduct and public confidence in jury verdicts.