Convict Denied Release Despite Changes in Sentencing Law (1)

A federal inmate’s compassionate release request has been denied because changes in sentencing law—including the First Step Act of 2018—don’t support his bid, a federal judge said Tuesday.

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a 2-1 split held the changes—including prospectively reducing penalties for the defendant’s offense and retroactively establishing legal error at sentencing—are “legally irrelevant” to the compassionate-release determination.

Curtis Jenkins, convicted for using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime and a cocaine possession charge, argues that a legal error at sentencing was made because he was considered a career offender. ...