U.S. v. Black

Defendant was entitled to new consideration on his motion for compassionate release under 18 USC section 3852(c)(1)(A) based on his prostate cancer diagnosis and COVID-19 pandemic under circumstances where defendant had served approximately one-third of his 40-year sentence on firearm, robbery and drug offenses  that were committed while he was Chicago police officer. While Dist. Ct. found that defendant had not established that his circumstances qualified as extraordinary and compelling reasons to support instant request or that sentencing factors under section 3553(a) weighed in support of early release since defendant had served only one-third of his sentence, Ct. of Appeals held that: (1) Dist. Ct. should not have relied on language in section 1B1.3 of USSG and its Application Note 1 to find that defendant had not established requisite extraordinary circumstances, where: (1) under Gunn, 980 F.3d 1178, section 1B1.3 and its Application Note 1 did not apply to prisoner-generated requests for compassionate release; and (2) under First Step Act, it is clear that defendant could have had only 20-year sentence for his convictions if he had been sentenced at time of instant request. As such, remand was required because Dist. Ct. did not consider impact of First Step Act and did not recognize full extent of its discretion to grant defendant relief. (Dissent filed.)