U.S. v. Newton

Dist. Ct. erred in denying defendant-prisoner’s motion for compassionate release under 18 USC section 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), where defendant claimed that his release was warranted because of COVID-19 pandemic in light of his combination of asthma, hypertension and use of corticosteroid, which posed risk of serious consequences should he become infected. While Dist. Ct. found that defendant had not demonstrated extraordinary and compelling reasons to warrant sentence reduction, where record showed that defendant had previously contracted COVID-19 that had been resolved without serious incident, and that defendant’s prison facility had lately succeeded in drastically reducing active COVID-19 cases, Ct. of Appeals found that remand was required, where Dist. Ct. had: (1) failed to consider defendant’s medical conditions on cumulative basis when assessing risk of serious consequences posed by COVID-19; (2) made improper assumption that defendant could not be re-infected with COVID-19 because of his prior bout with said disease; (3) made improper assumption that defendant would not face significantly reduced risk from contracting COVID-19 through his release. where prison population had relatively few active cases; and (4) failed to adequately consider defendant’s individualized arguments so as to properly exercise its discretion to act on defendant’s request. (Dissent filed.)