United States v. Williams
| Decision Date | 23 December 2020 |
| Docket Number | CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 2:18-cr-00148 |
| Citation | 509 F.Supp.3d 616 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, v. Bruce Landon WILLIAMS |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of West Virginia |
James Matthew Davis, U.S. Attorney's Office, Charleston, WV, for United States of America.
Pending before the court is Defendant Bruce Landon Williams's Motion for Compassionate Release. [ECF No. 72]. In deciding such motions, I consider the following: whether the defendant has exhausted his administrative remedies, has demonstrated "extraordinary and compelling reasons," is not a danger to the safety of others, and the § 3553(a) factors. In deciding what constitutes "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for release by reason of COVID-19, a defendant must demonstrate that he has a medical condition listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ("CDC") as causing an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and that he is at a facility which cannot effectively prevent the spread of the virus.
On June 17, 2019, I sentenced Mr. Williams to 37 months of imprisonment to be followed by 3 years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). [ECF No. 59].
Mr. Williams is currently imprisoned at Federal Medical Center Lexington in Lexington, Kentucky. He alleges that he suffers from two health conditions: obesity
and sleep apnea. [ECF No. 74, at 2]. FMC Lexington is an administrative security federal medical center that houses 1,114 total inmates. FMC Lexington , Fed. Bureau of Prisons, https://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/lex/ (last visited Dec. 23, 2020). As of December 23, 2020, there are 212 active cases among prisoners and 5 active cases among staff at FMC Lexington. See COVID-19 Cases , Fed. Bureau of Prisons, https://www.bop.gov/coronavirus (last visited Dec. 23, 2020).
Mr. Williams previously filed a letter-form Motion for Compassionate Release. [ECF No. 69]. I denied that Motion for failure to exhaust administrative remedies on July 2, 2020. [ECF No. 70].
The First Step Act "embodies Congress's intent to reduce the Bureau of Prison's authority over compassionate release petitions and authorizes the district courts to exercise their independent discretion to determine whether there are ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ to reduce a sentence." United States v. Galloway , No. CR RDB-10-0775, 2020 WL 2571172, at *3 (D. Md. May 21, 2020) (internal citations removed); see also United States v. Stephenson , 461 F.Supp.3d 864, 871 (S.D. Iowa 2020) ().
For me to reduce Mr. Williams's sentence under compassionate release, I must find that he has exhausted his administrative remedies, that he has demonstrated "extraordinary and compelling reasons," that he is not a danger to the safety of others, and that his release is consistent with the § 3553(a) factors. See e.g., United States v. Howard , No. 4:15-CR-00018-BR, 2020 WL 2200855, at *2 ; U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13 (2018). As I will explain, to find that "extraordinary and compelling reasons" exist by reason of COVID-19, Mr. Williams must demonstrate that he has a medical condition listed by the CDC as causing an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 and that he is at a facility which cannot effectively prevent the spread of the virus.
Moreover, when a court grants a sentence reduction, it "may impose a term of ... supervised release with or without conditions that does not exceed the unserved portion of the original term of imprisonment." 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). "In doing so, the court may modify an existing term of supervised release to add a period of home detention, only if it finds that home detention is a ‘substitute for imprisonment.’ " United States v. Alvarado , 462 F.Supp.3d 948, 951 (D. Minn. 2020) (); United States v. Spencer , No. 20-3721, 2020 WL 5498932, at *2 (6th Cir. 2020) (). Furthermore, "reducing Defendant's sentence to time-served is consistent with the goals of sentencing and does not second-guess or relitigate this Court's original judgment." United States v. Rodriguez , No. 17-CR-157 (VEC), 2020 WL 3051443, at *4 (S.D.N.Y. June 8, 2020).
The First Step Act empowers criminal defendants to request compassionate release for "extraordinary and compelling reasons." 18 U.S.C § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). But before they make such requests, defendants must ask BOP to do so on their behalf and then wait 30 days. See § 3582(c)(1)(A). Upon such a motion from BOP or from a defendant (after BOP denies the request or thirty days have elapsed since the request was filed), a court "may reduce the term of imprisonment ...." 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) ; see also United States v. McCoy , 981 F.3d 271, 282-83 (4th Cir. 2020).
Mr. Williams requested release to home confinement from the warden at FMC Lexington on August 4, 2020. [ECF No. 72, Ex. 5]. Mr. Williams's request was denied by the warden on October 29, 2020. [ECF No. 75, Ex. 1]. Because more than 30 days have passed since Mr. Williams sent his initial request to the warden, I find that he has exhausted his administrative remedies. As such, I now turn to whether Mr. Williams has alleged extraordinary and compelling reasons that would justify compassionate release.
Once an inmate has satisfied administrative exhaustion, courts may reduce their sentences upon a finding of "extraordinary and compelling reasons." See 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A).
There are "disagreements [among district courts] about the precise definition of ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ justifying compassionate release."1 United States v. Cotinola , No. 13-CR-03890-MV, 2020 WL 2526717, at *3 . But the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has clarified that district courts are not bound by the enumerated extraordinary and compelling reasons listed in Guidelines § 1B1.13 because the Guidelines have not been updated since the passage of the First Step Act. United States v. McCoy , 981 F.3d 271, 283 (4th Cir. 2020) (). "District Courts are ‘empowered ... to consider any extraordinary and compelling reason for release that a defendant might raise.’ " McCoy , 981 F.3d at 284 (quoting United States v. Zullo , 976 F.3d 228, 230 (2d Cir. 2020) ).
Many courts have found "extraordinary and compelling" reasons "supporting release on the basis of a combination of dire prison conditions and underlying health conditions that increase the likelihood of severe illness from COVID-19." See e.g., Bass , 462 F.Supp.3d at 187 (citing e.g., United States v. Rodriguez , 451 F.Supp.3d 392, 403-04 (E.D. Pa. 2020) ) (finding an "extraordinary and compelling reason" on the basis of the inmate's diabetes
, high blood pressure, and liver abnormalities, the outbreak at FCI Elkton, and the short period remaining on his sentence); United States v. Sawicz , 453 F.Supp.3d 601, 604-05 (E.D.N.Y. 2020) (). I previously granted compassionate release to a defendant who was immunocompromised—suffering from a liver disease, Hepatitis C. See United States v. White , 466 F.Supp.3d 666, 673 (S.D. W. Va. 2020) ; see also Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): People with Certain Medical Conditions , CDC, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html (last visited Dec. 23, 2020) (listing "immunocompromised state" as an underlying medical condition causing an "increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19").
In addition, many courts rely upon CDC guidance for whether a medical condition constitutes an "extraordinary and compelling" reason for release. See e.g., United States v. Salvagno , 456 F.Supp.3d 420, 427 (N.D.N.Y. 2020), reconsideration denied (June 22, 2020) ("The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised that people with hypertension
face an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19."); United States v. Nygren , No. 1:16-CR-00106-JAW, 2020 WL 4208926, at *12 (D. Me. July 22, 2020) (); United States v. Bell , No. 18-CR-60115-BB-4, 2020 WL 4217724, at *4 (S.D. Fla. July 23, 2020) ().
And many courts reject compassionate release petitions when the defendant does not suffer from any conditions recognized by the CDC as causing an increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19. See e.g., United States v. Adeyemi , 470 F.Supp.3d 489, 516 (E.D. Pa. 2020) ("Mr. Adeyemi's asthma
does not currently fit the Centers for Disease...
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