U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) have submitted an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in the case of Fernandez v. United States, urging the Court to uphold provisions of the First Step Act related to compassionate release.
The Supreme Court will review whether there are limits on what can be considered “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for granting compassionate release to incarcerated individuals. Joe Fernandez, who is serving a mandatory life sentence for a crime he claims he did not commit, had his sentence reduced by a district court judge in 2021 after finding such reasons existed. However, this decision was later reversed by the Second Circuit.
In their brief, Durbin and Booker explained Congressional intent behind the First Step Act, stating: “Under 18 U.S.C. § 3582, district courts are vested with authority to grant requests for compassionate release upon a prisoner’s showing of an extraordinary and compelling reason warranting relief. Compassionate release is an exercise in leniency addressed to the district court’s sound discretion. And in the First Step Act, Congress modified section 3582 with the express intention of ‘Increasing the Use and Transparency of Compassionate Release,’ § 603(b), 132 Stat. 5239. The question presented here is whether, in deciding a request for compassionate release, courts may consider grounds that could also be alleged as grounds for vacatur of a sentence under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. The Act’s text and purpose, as well as established principles of federal sentencing law, show that the answer is yes.”
They further stated: “Section 3582’s text gives district courts authority to consider requests for compassionate release, with no restriction on the slate of extraordinary and compelling reasons that could warrant relief. The sole constraint Congress imposed on the grounds that may qualify as extraordinary and compelling—that rehabilitation alone will not suffice, 28 U.S.C. § 994(t)—in no way bars consideration of other grounds that could also support relief under section 2255. Indeed, Congress’s decision to expressly bar only one ground from consideration—and even then to allow consideration of that ground together with other factors—evinces Congress’s intent not to bar courts from considering other grounds, including those that could also support relief under section 2255.”
The Senators criticized the Second Circuit’s approach: “As the foregoing makes clear, the Second Circuit erred in concluding that petitioner Joe Fernandez could not seek compassionate release on the basis of potential innocence simply because his claim could also be brought under section 2255. The court overlooked that compassionate release and habeas are distinct avenues for relief, with different purposes, bases for relief, and remedies. And even if section 3582 and section 2255 could be read to overlap, the Second Circuit should have avoided any conflict and harmonized the provisions by reading section 3582 to cover requests forleniency based on a district court’s individualized review of the prisoner’s circumstances and section 2255 to encompass claims asserting legal error in a conviction or sentence.”
They concluded: “The Second Circuit’s judgment should be reversed.”
The First Step Act was signed into law in 2018 with bipartisan support from lawmakers including Durbin, Booker, Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and Mike Lee (R-UT). The legislation introduced several reforms such as making Fair Sentencing Act reforms retroactive; requiring risk assessments by the Department of Justice; reducing mandatory minimums for certain drug offenses; expanding judicial discretion through safety valve provisions; and allowing incarcerated individuals direct access to federal courts for compassionate release motions.
Since its implementation, more than forty-four thousand incarcerated adults have been released under these reforms with a recidivism rate significantly lower than average Bureau of Prisons figures—9.7 percent compared to approximately forty-five percent overall.
To date there have been over four thousand retroactive sentence reductions granted along with nearly five thousand successful motions for compassionate release.
