Together with the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Mississippi, Simpson Thacher represented a 51-year-old Black individual who was erroneously sentenced to life in prison under the federal “three strikes” law based on purse snatchings that occurred when he was seventeen years old. These prior convictions, which involved conduct that took place in a three-week period, should have only counted as one strike—not two as required to trigger the application of the law.
Our client was originally sentenced to six consecutive life sentences for three bank robbery convictions and three stacked convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), which imposes additional punishment for the use of a firearm during a crime of violence. The team moved for a sentence reduction under the compassionate release provisions of the First Step Act on the grounds that the sentencing error and the non-retroactive changes to § 924(c)’s penalties for stacked convictions constituted extraordinary and compelling reasons for a sentence reduction. On August 9, 2022, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi granted our client’s motion and reduced his sentence to 24 years and one day. Because our client had already served more than two decades in prison and had accrued good time credit, he was released from prison the following day.
In a remarkable opinion, the court acknowledged that it had “clearly erred.” The court stated that its “imposition of life sentences on the bank robbery convictions vastly exceeded both the statutory maximum sentence and the applicable guideline range and was an illegal sentence.” The court further stated that its “sentence on the § 924(c) convictions also substantially exceeded [our client’s] correct sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines.” The court found that “these facts are extraordinary and compelling reasons for granting [our client] relief from the multiple life sentences which the court erroneously ordered.”
The court separately found that the “disparity” between the 60-year sentence he should have received for his § 924(c) convictions under the law in effect at the time of sentencing and the 24-year sentence he would receive today for those same convictions also “constitutes an ‘extraordinary and compelling reason’ to modify [his] sentence.”
In granting our client’s motion for compassionate release, the court credited his “genuine remorse” and “remarkable efforts at rehabilitation.” The court found it significant that although he had “no prospect of release from incarceration,” he “obtained his GED, completed extensive prison course work, paid several thousand dollars in restitution, and positively impacted the lives of individuals with whom he [came] in contact” during his time in prison.
Our client was welcomed home by his family and looks forward to rebuilding his life.
The case received media coverage by publications including Law360.
The Simpson Thacher team included Joshua A. Levine, Nihara K. Choudhri and Conor Mercadante.