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DC CIRCUIT IS NOT AN EARLY ADOPTER OF NEW COMPASSIONATE RELEASE STANDARDS

Louis Wilson – convicted 26 years ago of several counts, including killing a federal witness – filed for compassionate release under 18 USC § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), seeking to cut his life sentence to time served.

Louie argued that the extraordinary and compelling reasons supporting his compassionate release motion included (1) if United States v. Booker and Apprendi v. New Jersey had been decided prior to his sentence, he would have gotten 25 years instead of life because the district court considered additional facts during sentencing not proven to a jury; (2) the national murder sentencing statistics have “trended downward;” and (3) his medical conditions plus his exemplary prison citizenship supported compassionate release.

Louie argued that the purported intervening changes in law went to his length of time served and should constitute extraordinary and compelling reasons. The district court concluded, however, that time served in prison “does not in and of itself constitute an extraordinary and compelling circumstance.” After considering the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, the district court denied Louie’s motion.

Last week, the D.C. Circuit denied Louie’s appeal.

Under D.C. Circuit precedent in United States v. Jenkins, change in law arguments cannot be extraordinary and compelling reasons supporting compassionate release. But, Louie argued, since the D.C. Circuit decided Jenkins, the Sentencing Commission amended the Guidelines (to be effective November 1st absent Congressional veto) regarding what constitutes an extraordinary and compelling reason for release. The proposed guidelines state that district courts may consider a “change in the law” to ‘determine whether the defendant presents an extraordinary and compelling reason’ for release if he has “served at least 10 years [of] an unusually long sentence.”

Without explanation, the Circuit refused to “decide whether Wilson’s contentions would constitute extraordinary and compelling reasons under the not-yet-effective guidelines.”

The lesson is that no one should expect a Circuit to do now what its precedent says it cannot do. Wait until November.

United States v. Wilson, Case No. 21-3074, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 18608 (D.C. Cir. July 21, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root