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4TH ISSUES EXPANSIVE COMPASSIONATE RELEASE DECISION

Antonio Davis was in the 8th year of a 210-month sentence drug conspiracy sentence when COVID hit. He filed for an 18 USC § 3582(c)(1)(A) sentence reduction (compassionate release) for medical reasons and because he should no longer be a career offender inasmuch as one of his predicate offenses was no longer considered a crime of violence.

The district court denied Antonio’s motion because his medical condition wasn’t that bad and he had gotten vaccinated. The district court rejected Antonio’s career offender argument, finding that the issue should be raised in a 28 USC § 2255 motion. And even if Antonio had shown extraordinary and compelling reasons for relief, the court held that his release would not be justified under the 18 USC § 3553(a) sentencing factors because he had only done half of his sentence and 210 months was needed to address the seriousness of his crimes and the risk of recidivism.

Last week, the 4th Circuit reversed, holding that the district court wrongly failed to consider whether Antonio’s career-offender status claim was an extraordinary and compelling reason for release. “Years after Davis was sentenced,” the 4th said, “this Court held that a 21 USC § 846 [drug] conspiracy conviction… is not categorically a “controlled substance offense” for purposes of the career offender guidelines… If Davis were sentenced after that decision, he would no longer be designated a career offender…”

In addition, the Circuit said, Antonio presented a second intervening change in law that would further reduce his sentence. Guidelines Amendment 782, added in 2014, retroactively lowered the base offense level for Antonio’s § 846 conviction by two points, but because he was a career offender, he was not eligible for the reduction. “Today,” the 4th said, “Davis would not be sentenced as a career offender [and he would be] eligible for the retroactive two-point reduction…”

If Antonio “were sentenced today,” the Circuit said, “his guidelines range would be 92 to 115 months—about half of his 210-month sentence.” Citing the Supreme Court’s 2022 Concepcion v. United States decision, the 4th said, “Concepcion’s broad reasoning permits federal judges to think expansively about what constitute ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ for release, absent specific congressional limitations. And the Sentencing Commission’s latest guidance goes a long way to resolve any remaining questions of congressional intent not answered by the Supreme Court’s decision.”

The 4th concluded that “the district court abused its discretion by declining to address Davis’s change-in-law and rehabilitation arguments in its “extraordinary and compelling reasons” analysis. We also find that, given the mitigation evidence Davis supplied, the substantial changes in law between the original sentencing and today, and the potentially gross sentencing disparity created by those changes, the district court’s explanation of the § 3553(a) factors is insufficient.”

United States v. Davis, Case No. 21-7325, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 9399 (4th Cir, Apr 18, 2024)