Although the United States Sentencing Commission lost a voting quorum shortly after enactment of the First Step Act in December 2018--and cannot amend the Guidelines without four commissioners--the Commission continues to do research and generate a wide range of reports. This week the Commission released its regular annual review of federal criminal case data in a report titled Overview of Federal Criminal Cases, Fiscal Year 2021.
Today, in the first use of his clemency power, President Biden granted clemency to 78 people, including three pardons and 75 communtations. The Statement by President Joe Biden on the Clemency and Second Chance Month begins with these words:
The Justice Department is directing prosecutors to stop limiting defendants' ability to seek compassionate release in most federal plea agreements, after advocates criticized the practice as cruel and against the intent of Congress (view full article).
The United States Sentencing Commission today released a new report that examines trends in compassionate release during fiscal year 2020 in light of the enactment of the First Step Act of 2018, and the COVID-19 pandemic (view full report).
Today the Supreme Court decided Wooden v. United States, No. 20-5279 (S. Ct. March 7, 2022) soundly tossing out a sentencing enhancement for a Georgia man who was designated a “career criminal” based on his burglary convictions for breaking into a single mini-storage facility and stealing items from 10 separate storage units. Previous coverage available here and here.
According to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Black men statistically received harsher prison sentences than white men who commit the same crimes, receiving sentences 20.4 percent longer than white males.
Two Democrats in the Virginia Senate joined with Republicans on Monday to defeat a measure 21-19 that would have eliminated hundreds of mandatory minimum sentences (view full article).
It would have eliminated all mandatory minimums, except in the case of a conviction for the aggravated murder of a law-enforcement officer. Many of the penalties were adopted decades ago as part of the tough-on-crime movement, which some lawmakers blame for mass incarceration.
Last week, the Department of Justice announced it would begin transferring thousands of people out of federal prisons as part of the First Step Act.
FAMM has published First Step Act Earned Time Credits Rule Explainer. Key information include:
Who is eligible to apply FSA Time Credits toward pre-release custody or supervised release?
The Justice Department will begin transferring thousands of people out of federal prisons this week as part of a sweeping criminal justice overhaul signed more than three years ago (access full article).
The death penalty in Kentucky has been used sparingly in the last 30-plus years, but its use shows racial biases, according to a new report from local researchers and other experts (view full article).
In cases eligible for the death penalty, those with white victims have been far more likely to end in the convict being sentenced to death, according to a report from Professor Frank Baumgartner at UNC Chapel-Hill and the Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.