Public January 6 profile · ready to claim

James Little

Pardoned January 6 defendant

Documented editorial-use image

James Little of Claremont, North Carolina, is the misdemeanor defendant who changed federal sentencing law for everybody who came after him. Read that again. A petty offense case. A man from a small town in Catawba County. And a published federal appellate ruling that carries his name. THE RECEIPT FACT: James Little pleaded guilty to one petty offense, parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, under 40 U.S.C. 5104(e)(2)(G). On March 14, 2022, he was sentenced to 60 days in prison followed by 36 months of probation, plus 500 dollars restitution. FACT: He appealed. In United States v. Little (2023), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit held that federal law does not permit a court to impose both imprisonment and probation for a single petty offense. The court vacated his sentence and sent the case back for resentencing. FACT: That holding is now binding circuit precedent. It applied to a whole class of January 6 petty offense sentences, not just his. One man from Claremont, North Carolina, refused to accept a sentence he believed the statute did not authorize. He was right. The D.C. Circuit said so in writing. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT FACT: On remand the district court resentenced him, and his prison time increased. He challenged that on double jeopardy grounds. The D.C. Circuit rejected the double jeopardy claim. FACT: James Little carried the fight to the Supreme Court of the United States. His petition was docketed as No. 24-7183 in 2025. DOCUMENTED INFERENCE: A defendant who takes a misdemeanor all the way from a district court in Washington to the Supreme Court is not running from the record. He is demanding that the record follow the law. Same county, opposite rule. That is what James Little went to the appellate courts to stop. CASE RECORD Name: James Little, Claremont, North Carolina Case: 1:21-cr-315 Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Arrested: March 24, 2021. Charged by criminal information April 23, 2021. Plea agreement November 16, 2021. Sentenced March 14, 2022. Sentence vacated by the D.C. Circuit in 2023. Resentenced 2024. Cert petition No. 24-7183. This profile is unclaimed. If this is you, or your family, claiming it is free, forever.