U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13 cmt. n.1(A)(i).
To the extent that courts may grant compassionate release for “other reasons,” see supra note 4, we agree with the district court that none here is sufficient. To be sure, courts around the country, in some exceptional cases, have granted compassionate release where the defendant has demonstrated an increased risk of serious illness if he or she were to contract COVID. E.g., United States v. Zukerman, 451 F. Supp. 3d 329, 336 (S.D.N.Y. 2020). Even where they have denied release, some courts have assumed that the pandemic, combined with underlying conditions, might be an extraordinary and compelling reason for compassionate release. E.g., United States v. Pawlowski, 967 F.3d 327, 330 (3d Cir. 2020). But that is certainly not a unanimous approach to every high-risk inmate with preexisting conditions seeking compassionate release.[1]
The courts that granted compassionate release on those bases largely have done so for defendants who had already served the lion’s share of their sentences and presented multiple, severe, health concerns.[2] Even where the
- ↑ See, e.g., United States v. Gipson, 829 F. App’x 780, 781 (9th Cir. 2020) (affirming denial of compassionate release for a defendant with preexisting conditions who had already contracted COVID); United States v. Lambert, 829 F. App’x 117, 117–18 (6th Cir. 2020) (affirming denial of compassionate release for hydrocephalus); United States v. Raymer, No. 4:17-CR-153, 2020 WL 3451855, at *3–4 (E.D. Tex. June 23, 2020) (concluding that a borderline-obese 43-year-old man, suffering from fatty liver disease, bronchitis, and asthma, and who had contracted COVID, did not qualify for early release); United States v. Martinez-Arias, No. 2:11-cr-00598, 2020 WL 5210938, at *3–4 (S.D. Tex. Sept. 1, 2020) (finding no extraordinary circumstances for a 58-year-old inmate suffering from diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol).
- ↑ See, e.g., Zukerman, 451 F. Supp. 3d at 335–36 (approving home incarceration in light of COVID for an obese 75-year-old man with diabetes and hypertension); United States v. Rodriguez, 451 F. Supp. 3d 392, 394, 405, 407 (E.D. Pa. 2020) (reducing sentence to time served, because of COVID, for an inmate who was 1½ years from release after serving 17 years and suffered from diabetes, hypertension, and liver abnormalities); United States v. Muniz, No. 4:09-CR-0199-1, 2020 WL 1540325, at *2 (S.D. Tex. Mar. 30, 2020)
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