United States v. Butler
| Decision Date | 08 September 2020 |
| Docket Number | CRIMINAL ACTION No. 10-612 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. LARRY BUTLER |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Before the Court is the Defendant Larry Butler's Motion for Compassionate Release. For the reasons that follow, the motion is granted.
Larry Butler is currently incarcerated for the robbery of a clothing store on May 20, 2010, during which he threatened store employees with a firearm and bound them with zip ties. Butler was detained pending trial in September 2010. He was convicted and sentenced on charges of Hobbs Act robbery, conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery, and brandishing a firearm in the commission of that offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). This Court sentenced Butler to a 175-month term of imprisonment to be followed by five years of supervised release. Butler currently has served approximately 133 months, including good conduct time of 13 months, or approximately 75% of his sentence. (Gov't's Resp. in Opp'n to Def.'s Mot. to Reduce Sentence Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) [Gov't's Resp.] at 4.) His anticipated release from prison is May 30, 2023, with an additional five years of supervised release to follow. (Id.)
The Court will not write at length about the havoc wreaked by COVID-19 in the United States. The virus, coupled with the abysmal response to it throughout much of this country, has led to the death of over 186,000 people (and counting) in the United States. While the virus can be dangerous for anyone, people with certain underlying medical conditions and older adults are at increased risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19. People Who Are At Increased Risk for Severe Illness, CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-at-increased-risk.html (last visited Sept. 4, 2020). Prisons have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, as they present numerous environmental factors favorable to the spread of the virus. See United States v. Rodriguez, Crim. A. No. 03-271, 2020 WL 1627331, at *1, 8-9 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 1, 2020) ().
After the onset of the unprecedented pandemic, in April 2020, Butler petitioned the warden of FCI Schuylkill—the facility where he is housed—for compassionate release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), based on extraordinary and compelling reasons because he suffers from health conditions associated with an increased risk of serious infection or death from COVID-19. (Gov't's Resp. at 4.) The warden denied that request six days later. (Id.) In July 2020, Butler moved this Court pro se on the same grounds, and the Government has opposed the motion. Butler is 61 years old, and he suffers from obesity, hypertension, sleep apnea, and anxiety, among other conditions. (See id.at 4-5; E.C.F. No. 65 at 36.)
Butler seeks to reduce his sentence and grant compassionate release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(C)(1)(A)(i). Before the Court may consider such a motion, the defendant must satisfy anadministrative exhaustion requirement to the Bureau of Prisons. 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). If the requirement is satisfied, a district court "may reduce [a federal inmate's] term of imprisonment" and "impose a term of probation or supervised release . . . if it finds that . . . extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction." Id. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). The reduction must be "consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission." Id. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(ii). Finally, prior to granting a compassionate release, a district court must "consider[ ] the factors set forth in section 3553(a)", which are the factors to be considered in imposing a criminal sentence, "to the extent they are applicable[.]" Id. § 3582(c)(1)(A). Those factors include: the nature and circumstances of the offense; the defendant's history and characteristics; the need for the sentence to reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for law, provide just punishment, provide adequate deterrence, protect the public from further crimes, and provide the defendant with needed correctional treatment in the most effective manner; and the need to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1-2, 6). In consideration of Butler's health conditions and age, as well as the length of time he has already served, and the factors in set forth in section 3553(a), the Court now finds that extraordinary and compelling reasons justify Butler's immediate release from imprisonment.
To fulfill § 3582(C)(1)(A)'s exhaustion requirement, an inmate must first request that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) bring a motion for compassionate release on his behalf and either exhaust his administrative rights to appeal the BOP's denial or wait 30 days, whichever is earlier. United States v. Harris, 812 Fed. App'x. 106, 107 (3d Cir. 2020) (citing United States v. Raia, 954 F.3d 594, 595 (3d Cir. 2020)). Butler submitted a request for compassionate release to the warden at hiscurrent facility in April 2020. (Gov't's Resp. at 4.) He then filed the current motion in July 2020, more than 30 days later. Butler has met the requirement to exhaust his administrative remedies.
The Court finds that extraordinary and compelling reasons justify Butler's immediate release from incarceration. While Congress has not defined the term "extraordinary and compelling reasons," the Sentencing Commission's policy statement provides persuasive guidance on its meaning.1 Pursuant to that statement, extraordinary and compelling reasons for sentence reduction exist where, "[t]he defendant is suffering from a serious physical or medical condition . . . that substantially diminishes the ability to provide self-care within the environment of a correctional facility and from which he or she is not expected to recover.'" U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13(1)(A)(ii). The Government concedes that "an inmate who presents a risk factor identified by the CDC as increasing the risk of an adverse outcome from COVID-19 presents a 'a serious physical or medical condition . . . that substantially diminishes the ability to provide self-care within the environment of a correctional facility[.]'" (Gov't's Resp. at 14, citing Sentencing Guidelines policy statement § 1B1.13(1)(A)(ii).) Thus, the first question the Court considers is whether Butler has a health condition identified by the CDC as increasing the risk of an adverse outcome from COVID-19. The Court finds that he does.
Butler's obesity alone puts him at risk of serious illness should he contract COVID-19. Current CDC guidance presents obesity, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher, asan underlying medical condition that creates an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19 for a person of any age. Certain Medical Conditions and Risk for Severe COVID-19 Illness, CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html (last visited Sept. 4, 2020). Indeed, the Government concedes that Butler's BMI of 35.8 "unquestionably meets the test for an 'extraordinary and compelling reason' set forth in application note 1(A), as the condition puts him at risk for a severe outcome were he to contract COVID-19." (Gov't's Resp. at 17.) In light of the Government's agreement that obesity constitutes a serious physical or medical condition, as described in policy statement note 1(A), the Court concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic modifies both the conditions that may make a defendant unable to provide self-care in a correctional facility, and the timeframe during which a defendant cannot be expected to recover. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13(1)(A)(ii). Even if it were expected that Butler could recover from his diagnosis of obesity at some point in the future, he could not possibly recover quickly enough to protect himself from the immediate threat of COVID-19 in his prison facility and the severe or fatal consequences that he could suffer because of his obesity if he contracts the virus.
In addition to obesity, Butler also suffers from hypertension and sleep apnea, which manifests as shortness of breath while sleeping. (See E.C.F. No. 65 at 36, 82.) "Courts have granted compassionate release to incarcerated individuals with obesity and sleep apnea because those conditions place them at high risk for serious complications due to COVID-19." United States v. Delgado, Crim. A. 18-17, 2020 WL 2464685, at *4 (D. Conn. Apr. 30, 2020) (citing cases). The Government does not specifically address Butler's sleep apnea but argues that his "unspecified 'breathing issues'" do not present a definite risk factor for COVID. (Gov't's Resp. at 15.) As for hypertension, the Government argues that the CDC describes hypertension as a medicalcondition that "might" be an independent risk factor for severe illness from COVID-19 but does not classify it as a definite risk factor. (Id.) But the CDC has also found that risk for hospitalization from COVID-19 is three times higher for those with hypertension than those without. COVID-19 Associated Hospitalization Related to Underlying Medical Conditions, CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/ hospitalization-underlying-medical-conditions.html (last visited Sept 4, 2020). The same is true for those with obesity. Id. The Court agrees with the Government that neither hypertension nor sleep apnea independently constitute CDC-identified risk factors for severe illness with COVID-19. But the Court considers these conditions as additional evidence that Butler's obesity—which is a CDC-identified risk factor for severe illness—creates a risk of...
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