United States v. Hope

• Docket Number: 1:97-CR-105 (3)-MJT
• Decision Date: 23 August 2023
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. REDDERICK WAYNE HOPE
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Texas

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
REDDERICK WAYNE HOPE

No. 1:97-CR-105 (3)-MJT

United States District Court, E.D. Texas, Beaumont Division

August 23, 2023

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE

Zack Hawthorn, United States Magistrate Judge

Pending before the undersigned is a Motion for Compassionate Release Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) (Doc. No. 144) filed by the Defendant, Redderick Wayne Hope (“Hope”), on October 7, 2020. The Government filed a response opposing Hope's request on November 4, 2020 (Doc. No. 148). Hope filed a Memorandum Response on April 6, 2022 (Doc. No. 157), the Government filed a response on June 13, 2022 (Doc. No. 157), and Hope filed a subsequent rebuttal on June 27, 2022. Hope's original Motion for Compassionate Release was referred to the undersigned on April 27, 2023.^[1] (Doc. No. 160.) After reviewing all applicable facts and law, the undersigned recommends granting the motion because Hope has established extraordinary and compelling reasons for compassionate release.

I. Offense Conduct Relevant to Federal Charges^[2]

On July 23, 1997, Hope was named in a three-count indictment charging him and two codefendants with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Conspiracy), 18 U.S.C. § 2119 (Carjacking), and 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1) (Use of a Firearm During and in Relation to a Crime of Violence). (Doc. 89, p. 3.)

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On June 3, 1997 (at the age of 18), Hope and three others travelled from Port Arthur, Texas, to Beaumont, Texas, for the purpose of stealing a vehicle. In the early morning hours of June 4, 1997, the defendants found their victim who was washing his car in a stall at a car wash. One of the co-defendants approached the victim, pointed a semiautomatic firearm at his face, ordered him to get on the ground and give them his money before striking him (an injury which required ten stitches and eight days of lost work due to pain and medication). During the incident, a co-defendant fired a firearm into the air.

Hope drove the vehicle from the car wash with the co-defendants. A police chase ensued, and Hope and his co-defendants jumped from the vehicle and were able to avoid detention (after stealing a firearm and stereo). Ultimately, Hope was arrested on August 7, 1997-his 19th birthday-and has been incarcerated in either state or federal custody ever since.

During the presentence investigation interview, Hope admitted to his participation in the carjacking, but claims he was the “lookout” while the co-defendants approached the victim.^[3]Hope denied that he furnished any of the firearms or stole a firearm from the victim's car. Hope expressed remorse over his actions and stated that there never a plan to strike the victim, only to fire a shot to scare him. The report notes that Hope did not hold any type of supervisory control over any of the defendants and the sentencing transcript reflects that he cooperated with law enforcement to identify and prosecute his co-defendants. (Doc. No. 117, p. 27.)

Hope pled guilty to the second count of the Superseding Indictment that charged him with a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2119 (Carjacking). On December 16, 1997, United States

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District Judge Howell Cobb sentenced him to 168 months' imprisonment, with three years of supervised release to follow.^[4] Although Judge Cobb acknowledged the pending state charges at the sentencing hearing, his oral pronouncement and written judgment were silent as to whether the federal sentence would run consecutively or concurrently with the anticipated state sentence. In April of 1999, Hope was sentenced in state court to 15 years' imprisonment for five separate state felonies. The state sentences were explicitly ordered to run concurrently with each other, but consecutively to his federal sentence.^[5] State of Texas v. Hope, Case No. F97-74-750 (Jefferson County April 12, 1999 (Agreed Punishment Recommendation referencing Case No. F97-74744) (Unauthorized Use of a Vehicle), F97-74743 (Unauthorized Use of a Vehicle), F97-74790 (Aggravated Robbery), F-98-76545 (Escape), and F97-74799 (Aggravated Robbery)).

II. Juvenile Criminal Behavior^[6]

The June 1997 carjacking was not Hope's first criminal act. Records show that he was first referred to the Jefferson County Juvenile Probation Department for the offense of theft at age 13. (Doc. No. 89, p. 11.) Unfortunately, his criminal behavior continued, and he was again referred to Juvenile Probation at age 14 for criminal mischief on January 12, 1993, and again on January 27, 1993, for burglary of a vehicle. (Id.) Hope's criminal acts repeated throughout his teenage years, and by the time Hope reached his 18th birthday, he had stolen five cars and

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burglarized three homes. While incarcerated in the Texas Youth Commission, Hope had twelve incident reports-eleven of which were for “disruption of program” and one for “assaulting a staff member.”

Records also reflect that as a teenager, Hope was a member and possible recruiter for the “Rollin 60's” street gang in Port Arthur, which is associated with the larger Crips gang organization. (Doc. No. 89, p. 13, 22.)

III. Offense Behavior Relevant to State Charges^[7]

On October 15, 1996 (less than one year prior to his federal offense and nearly two months after his 18th birthday), Hope was involved in a home burglary in Port Neches, Texas.^[8]Hope and a co-defendant followed a woman home from a K-Mart and Hope approached her in her garage wearing a ski mask and holding a pistol. He demanded money and stole her purse. On May 12, 1997, Hope stole a vehicle in Port Arthur, Texas. On May 13, 1997, Hope drove the getaway vehicle in an attempted robbery where the victim was shot by a co-defendant. On June 8, 1997, Hope stole a car in Port Arthur, Texas, and evaded arrest. These state charges remained pending at the time he was sentenced in federal court. Ultimately, he pled guilty to all the state charges and was sentenced to 15 years in TDCJ custody, which he served prior to the beginning of his 168 month federal term of imprisonment.

IV. Grounds for Relief and Government's Response

The procedural history shows that Hope has diligently pursued ways to correct what he misunderstood to be an error in sentencing resulting in the imposition of his federal sentence to run consecutively to his state sentence. These attempts-raised in collateral review

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proceedings-were unsuccessful.^[9] On April 14, 1998, he filed a Pro Se Motion to Reduce Sentencing. (Doc. No. 114); see also Hope v. United States, No. 1:98-cv-1896 (E.D. Tex. 1998). On March 5, 2001, Hope filed a pro se motion asking Judge Cobb to order that his federal and state sentences run concurrently. (Doc. No. 124.) Hope petitioned the court for a reduction in sentence on August 28, 2018, through a pro se letter asking the court to modify the federal sentence so that the state and federal terms of imprisonment would be concurrent instead of consecutive.^[10] (Doc. 142, p. 1.) In this pro se motion, Hope wrote:

In my early youth I was a car thief and burglar. I did not like confrontation. I do admit that even though I participated in some serious crimes, I personally never physically harmed anyone in my life. I am not a violent person. I chose the wrong friends and found out too late [who] some of them were. I understand that I am just as guilty because I was there. I have regret[t]ed my choices for the past 21 years. At my sentencing before the Honorable Judge Cobb, I remember him stating that I had been given a number of chances before, but to my 18 year old mind I had no idea of the pain I caused to my victims and my own family. I have lost all of my grandparents during this incarceration period. I believe in the

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Justice system here in America, and if you Honor would find it in his heart to amend or modify my sentence, I will spend the rest of my dates here on earth making up for my sins and re-paying society as a whole by giving back to the communities in any way that I can. 21 years of being locked up straight has given me a new respect for the small things in life. I will be the success story . . .”

(Doc. 142, p. 2.) The court never ruled on or recognized his requests.

In October 2020, Hope filed a motion for compassionate release, relying in part on the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[11] (Doc. No. 144.) At the time, Hope had spent 23 years in prison: fifteen years in state custody and eight years toward his 168 month federal sentence. Hope seeks compassionate release on several “extraordinary and compelling” grounds: his age at the time of offense, the length of consecutive state and federal sentences, his misunderstanding that the sentences would not run concurrently, and rehabilitation efforts made in prison. His motion states:

Rodderick Hope's sentence of 168 months in and of itself is not extraordinary. The circumstances of how this sentence has been carried out are. In 1997 at the age of 18,^[12] he was sentenced for a carjacking and also for a state robbery charge for which he pled guilty and accepted a 15 year sentence that was supposed to run concurrent[ly] with the federal sentence. But due to the ineffectiveness of the court appointed lawyer the state sentence was ran [sic] consecutively. This resulted in Hope serving 15 years away in TDC. Once this sentence was served and he was released, he was sent straight to the [Federal Bureau of Prisons] to begin serving his federal sentence of another 14 years . . . While most young men would be crushed under the strains of serving 15 straight [years] and then beginning another 14 year sentence away from their loved ones, Hope was different . . . Hope started his time in the Federal Bureau of Prisons by compiling an extraordinary record of rehabilitation. That record includes sterling prison

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conduct as evidenced by numerous certificates and the lowering of his

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