Evolution of Federal Drug Sentencing to Compassionate Release

For John Bailey, achieving justice involved a long journey on both straight and winding roads with many obstacles along the way. But trying as it may have been, the odyssey ended by arriving at the sweetest of destinations – freedom.

In December 2020, NACDL released model legislation and an accompanying report discussing “second look” legislation. The proposed legislation is a fully developed draft bill for consideration by the states.

The FIRST STEP Act directly impacts accused and sentenced prisoners in myriad ways. Defense attorney Todd Bussert discusses Bureau of Prisons-related aspects of the law, including changes to the time credit calculus, avenues by which prisoners can earn both earlier pre-release transfers and placement on supervised release, and avenues to petition courts for reductions in sentence for extraordinary and compelling reasons. Bussert points out that implementation of some of the Act’s provisions may be delayed.

Successful Presentation of Compassionate Release Actions in Light of COVID-19, Including for the Foreign-Born Client with an Immigration Detainer

Representation of detained clients who are at high risk for serious health consequences if they contract COVID-19 involves a progression of actions. The authors provide an overview of how to seek compassionate release from both prison wardens and dis­trict courts. This discussion includes strategies for nav­igating an ICE detainer and other immigration law issues when clients are not United States citizens.

This month Jeffrey M. Gamso reviews Homeward: Life in the Year after Prison by Bruce Western.

Although women are comprising an ever-larger part of the prison population, they are being housed in a correctional system that was primarily designed for men.

This month Russell Stetler reviews Criminality in Context: The Psychological Foundations of Criminal Justice Reform by Craig Haney.

A new Illinois statute, the first of its kind in the United States, permits postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis to be considered a mitigating factor at sentencing for crimes committed when women are suffering from these illnesses. Defense attorney Barry Lewis writes that although this legislation is limited in scope (when compared to laws in other countries), the hope is that it will serve as a model for similar or broader laws in other states.

This month Chloe Reyes and Patrick Keenan-Devlin review Criminal Defense-Based Forensic Social Work by Ashley Ratliff and Maren Willins (Editors).

Courts around the United States have increasingly recognized that the coronavirus is an extraordinary and compelling reason warranting release of inmates. Several courts have heeded the call from legal and medical experts to release vulnerable and old inmates from inherently unsafe facilities.

This month Cara Wieneke reviews The Meaning of Life: The Case for Abolishing Life Sentences by Marc Mauer and Ashley Nellis.

Congress amended 18 U.S.C. § 3582 to permit prisoners to file their own motions for compassionate release.

Risk assessment – the assessment of risk of reoffending or risk of future violent behavior – is a hot topic. However, only rarely do lawyers address the questions raised by criminal justice-related risk assessment. This finding suggests that defense lawyers may not be paying enough attention to the issue. A key issue involves addressing how the risk assessment connects the dots between a specific client’s circumstances and the factors related to reoffending and violence.

The decision to credit a client’s remorse may make a difference at sentencing, but remorse is difficult to assess. People are overconfident in their ability to interpret mental states and sincerity: accuracy rates are no better than chance. Because the decision whether to believe an expression of remorse is subjective, it is a fertile area in which implicit bias can flourish. Professor Eve Hanan suggests steps that advocates can take to counteract bias in remorse assessments.

Willie Herring’s case cried out for mitigation. The cry went unanswered. The 5-4 decision from the Ohio Supreme Court in Herring’s case does not break new ground. It does, however, provide important reminders about the duty of capital defense attorneys to ensure that a comprehensive mitigation investigation is conducted in every case.