Statute
First Step Act
574 published works
Criminal
US Sentencing Commission creates helpful information webpage on “First Step Act Earned Time Credits”
In addition to being active in advancing large and small guidelines amendments, the great new US Sentencing Commission has been doing a great new job providing helpful information to the…
Criminal
Another FIRST STEP Act sentence reduction for last of “Newburgh Four” defendants involved in “FBI-orchestrated conspiracy”
In this post six months ago, I flagged US District Judge Colleen McMahon's notable opinion in US v. Williams, in which she explained why she was reducing the sentences of…
Criminal
Notable district court ruling that circuit precedent precludes reduction of extreme stacked 924(c) sentence
A helpful reader made sure I saw a notable new denial of a sentencing-reduction motion in US v. Carter, No. 07-374-1 (ED Pa. Jan. 12, 2024) (available for download below). …
Criminal
US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing set on “Five Years of the First Step Act: Reimagining Rehabilitation and Protecting Public Safety”
I was pleased to discover today that the US Senate Judiciary Committee has announced it will have a full committee hearing next week on this topic: "Five Years of the…
Criminal
Top side SCOTUS brief now files in <em>Erlinger v. US</em>, the case considering <em>Apprendi</em>‘s application to part of ACCA
I still expect the Pulsifer case about the FIRST STEP Act's expansion of the mandatory minimum statutory safety valve (the "and" versus "or") to prove to be the most interesting…
Criminal
US Sentencing Commission provides (not quite complete) “Year in Review”
The US Sentencing Commission sent me email today titled "A Look Ahead + Year in Review." One email cannot, of course, cover all that the Commission has been doing in…
Criminal
Some early celebrations of the FIRST STEP Act at five
In May 2018, the US House of Representatives under the leadership of House Speaker Paul Ryan (remember him?) voted by a margin of 360-59 to pass the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter…
Criminal
CCJ releases additional short reports on the impact of the First Step Act on recidivism and time served
I flagged in this post from August this notable new report authored by Avinash Bhati and published by the Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) titled "First Step Act: An Early Analysis…
Criminal
Bureau of Justice Statistics releases “Federal Prisoner Statistics Collected Under the First Step Act, 2023”
Providing another report for prison data junkies, the Bureau of Justice Statistics today released this 26-page report titled ""Federal Prisoner Statistics Collected Under the First Step Act, 2023." Here the…
Criminal
Some division in headlines covering SCOTUS divisions in ACCA drug priors cases
I flagged here yesterday the Supreme Court's oral arguments scheduled for today in the ACCA cases of Brown and Jackson. Like so many ACCA cases, the task here of sorting…