Sentencing Law and Policy

Fourth Circuit panel finds district court abused its discretion when denying compassionate release to elderly drug offender

I just came across a notable ruling from last week by a Fourth Circuit panel in US v. Malone, No. 21-6242 (4th Cir. Jan. 5, 2023) (available here). In this case, the circuit court panel concludes that "the district court abused its discretion by failing to properly assess the following factors which would warrant Malone’s compassionate release: his ailing health, advanced age, and relevant 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors." Here is one key paragraph from the opinion (emphasis in the original):

[W]e conclude that the district court abused its discretion by failing to recognize that the relevant § 3553(a) factors clearly favor release.  Having a Category I criminal history, Malone acknowledged the seriousness of his offense in prior motions to the court and has now served over fourteen years of his sentence.  While in prison, he participated in multiple classes and was also placed in a low-level prison camp.  His new extraordinary and compelling health-related circumstances have condemned him to a life filled with limitations.  Due to these circumstances, his potential for recidivism is low to none and he does not pose a threat to others or the community at large.  To affirm the district court’s denial would not only be a great disservice to Malone, but to any defendant with failing health seeking autonomy in their twilight.  There is a reason this is called compassionate release, after all.

Just a couple of criminal matters in big new set of SCOTUS cert grants

The Supreme Court this afternoon granted cert on a number of cases via this order list.  Sadly, there is not much of interest in all the cases for sentencing fans, and really only one criminal case and immigration cases with criminal law elements.  This SCOTUSblog post has all the details, and here are snippets from that post:

The Supreme Court will review how employers must accommodate their employees’ religious practices, how courts should decide whether threatening statements are protected by the First Amendment, and whether a local government violated the Constitution when it confiscated and sold a $40,000 home based on the owner’s failure to pay $15,000 in property taxes.

Those issues are among a slew of new disputes that the justices added to their docket on Friday afternoon in an order list from their private conference earlier in the day. The justices granted review in 11 new cases for a total of eight hours of oral argument. The cases will likely be argued in late April, with decisions to follow by summer....

Counterman v. Colorado

The court also agreed to weigh in on an important free speech question: What test should courts use to determine whether statements are “true threats” that are not protected by the First Amendment? The question comes to the court in the case of Billy Raymond Counterman, who was convicted and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for stalking a local musician....

Pugin v. Garland and Garland v. Cordero-Garcia

In a pair of immigration cases that have been consolidated for oral argument, the justices agreed to decide whether a criminal offense that does not interfere with an existing investigation or judicial proceeding qualifies as an “offense relating to obstruction of justice,” a serious crime that can result in deportation and additional criminal punishment for noncitizens.

Outgoing Pennsylvania Gov included high-profile artist in final batch of record-setting clemency grants

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has only a few more days in office, and he is closing out a tenure that has been record setting in the use of clemency authority.  This local article discusses that record as well as the high-profile clemency recipent in the last batch of grants:

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has pardoned Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill of his possession of drugs and weapons charges from 2008....

Wolf has issued more than twice the amount of pardons granted by any of his predecessors, with at least a quarter of them targeting non-violent marijuana offenses, his administration announced Thursday.

Wolf, a Democrat, signed his final 369 pardons this week, for a total of 2,540 since he took office in 2015. He surpassed Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell's record of 1,122 granted pardons. Of the pardons, 395 were part of the expedited review process for nonviolent marijuana-related offenses. Another 232 were part of the PA Marijuana Pardon Project, which accepted applications through the month of September.

"I have taken this process very seriously - reviewing and giving careful thought to each and every one of these 2,540 pardons and the lives they will impact," Wolf said in a statement. "Every single one of the Pennsylvanians who made it through the process truly deserves their second chance, and it's been my honor to grant it."

A pardon grants total forgiveness of the related criminal conviction and allows for expungement.

Oklahoma become third state to complete an execution at the start of 2023

As detailed in this press report, "Oklahoma executed a man Thursday who was convicted of killing an elderly couple and committing other crimes 20 years ago before authorities caught up to him in Texas after a manhunt."  Here is more:

Scott James Eizember, 62, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m. local time....

Eizember's attorneys did not deny he killed A.J. Cantrell, 76, and his wife, Patsy Cantrell, 70, on Oct. 18, 2003. But they told the state's Pardon and Parole Board last month that the killings were unplanned and spontaneous and his life still had value. The board voted 3-2 to reject a clemency recommendation.

"He has felt remorse every day of his imprisonment.  There is no reason to kill him next month other than revenge," attorney Mark Henricksen told the board.

After the execution, several members of the Cantrell spoke of the pain the family has endured and voiced concern at the length of time it took for Eizember to be executed.  "After living this nightmare, I must say that 20 years is too long for justice to be served," Johnny Melton, the slain couple's nephew, said in a statement read on behalf of the family.  "We want to get it right and we absolutely want to ensure that everyone's rights are protected, but the process is much too slow."

Melton also stressed the importance of addressing domestic violence and improving mental health treatment, in the state of Oklahoma and across the nation.  "I know this is going to be a controversial statement, but I believe it to be a fact. It is the abuser who needs help. They need it when they are young," Melton said. "By the time the victim needs help, it's too late."...

Eizember filed a last-minute lawsuit seeking to have his spiritual adviser with him inside the death chamber during his execution after the Department of Corrections rejected the minister because of [Rev. Jeffrey] Hood's history of anti-death penalty activism, including arrests.  The DOC reversed course on that decision Wednesday, citing concerns from the Cantrell family that the decision could lead to Thursday's execution being called off.  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their pastors pray aloud and even touch them during their executions.

Oklahoma uses a three-drug lethal injection method starting with the sedative midazolam, rendering the person unconscious, followed by a paralytic vecuronium bromide and finally potassium chloride, which stops the heart.  Eizember's execution was the eighth in Oklahoma since the state resumed executions in 2021.

US Sentencing Commissions publishes proposed guideline amendments and issues for comment

This afternoon, the (finally) fully loaded US Sentencing Commission held a public meeting in which it discussed and published proposed guideline amendment on a number of topics. This official press release provide this summary (with links from the original):

The United States Sentencing Commission voted today to publish for comment proposed guideline amendments on several topics, including revisions that would implement two significant changes made by the First Step Act of 2018.

The First Step Act authorized defendants for the first time to file a motion for compassionate release, without having the Director of the Bureau of Prisons make a motion. Today’s proposed amendment would add this new procedural option.   The amendment would also revise the circumstances identified by the Commission as “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for purposes of a motion for compassionate release.

“Commission data have indicated that in recent years — over the COVID-19 pandemic and without a Commission quorum — the district courts have granted compassionate release at varying rates.  It is my sincere hope that our work today and in the coming months brings greater clarity to the federal courts and more uniform application of Compassionate Release across the country,” said Judge Carlton W. Reeves, Chair of the Commission.

The First Step Act also expanded “safety valve” eligibility for relief from mandatory minimum penalties to certain offenders with more than one criminal history point.  The Commission proposed changes today that would update §5C1.2 and amend the 2-level reduction in the drug trafficking guideline currently tied to the statutory safety valve.

Consistent with its responsibility to respond to major legislation affecting federal crimes, the Commission also voted to publish a proposed amendment implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act — firearms legislation that passed after the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.  The Act directed the Commission to increase penalties for certain firearms offenders, particularly straw purchasers. 

The Commission also published a package of amendments relating to the criminal history rules, including reconsideration of “status” points for defendants who commit the instant offense while under another criminal justice sentence, the treatment of defendants with zero criminal history points, and the impact of simple possession of marihuana offenses.

The amendment also presents an alternative to the “categorical approach,” a complex legal test courts use to determine whether a conviction qualifies an offender for enhanced penalties under the guidelines. “I have heard consistently from judges throughout the nation that the categorical approach should be reconsidered. Judges are far too often flummoxed by how to apply the categorical approach.  This is certainly a matter that the Commission will continue to discuss and one that warrants a public hearing,” Judge Reeves said.

The Commission also asked for comment on whether the guidelines adequately address certain sexual abuse offenses, how it should address important circuit court conflicts, and whether the guidelines appropriately account for acquitted conduct, among other matters.

“The Commission received more than 8,000 letters of public comment on our tentative priorities in October,” said Reeves, “and we again look forward to robust comment in response to these proposed amendments.” 

The proposals are subject to a 60-day public comment period running through mid-March.  The Commission will hold public hearings in February and March to receive expert testimony on the amendments proposed at today’s meeting.  The events will stream live on the Commission's website.  A data briefing on today’s proposed criminal history amendments will also be made available in the coming weeks.

Notably, this overview of proposed amendments only provides a partial account of all that sentencing fans should find interesting in the new proposed amendment. For example, the proposals also include a provision to "amend §1B1.3 to add a new subsection (c) providing that acquitted conduct shall not be considered relevant conduct for purposes of determining the guideline range unless the conduct was admitted by the defendant during a guilty plea colloquy or was found by the trier of fact beyond a reasonable doubt to establish, in whole or in part, the instant offense of conviction."

I hope to find timein the coming days and weeks to comment in various ways on these amendments. And I am hopeful that we will see lots of commentary and analysis from lots of sources and perspectives as the new USSC gears up finalize the first set of guideline amendments in nearly 5 years.

Council on Criminal Justice releases Illinois analysis of "The Public Safety Impact of Shortening Lengthy Prison Terms"

I keep noting this post from earlier this year discussing the Council of Criminal Justice's impressive Task Force on Long Sentences.  That Task Force keeps producing all sorts of interesting documents about long sentences (see prior posts here and here), and this latest report is authored by Avinash Bhati and titled "The Public Safety Impact of Shortening Lengthy Prison Terms."  This press release about the report provides this background and some particulars:

Shortening Illinois prison sentences of 10 years or more by modest amounts would result in very few additional arrests, cutting the state prison population significantly without jeopardizing public safety, according to a new analysis for a Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) task force.

Reducing lengthy prison terms by as much as 30% would result in “a virtually undetectable increase” (less than one tenth of one percent) in annual arrests statewide, according to the report for CCJ’s Task Force on Long Sentences, which was produced in partnership with the Illinois Sentencing Policy Advisory Council (SPAC). Most additional arrests would be for drug, property, and other nonviolent crimes.

More than 1,100 people were released from Illinois prisons during the three-year study period, after serving a decade or more; the group served an average of nearly 19 years. While any additional arrests are cause for concern, the research estimates that reducing prison time served by those in the study group by one, two, or three years would result in between 11 and 37 additional arrests; in 2020, there were 89,173 total index crime and drug arrests in Illinois. No individual in the study group was estimated to have more than one additional arrest....

The research was conducted by the data analytics firm Maxarth LLC, which analyzed detailed arrest history data for the 1,127 people released from Illinois prisons between June 2016 and June 2019. For those who had served 10 years or more, researchers then created “microsimulations” to estimate the number of arrests that were averted due to the individuals’ long prison stays. (Details on the calculations and analysis can be found in the report methodology.)

Reductions in the size of the prison population, the analysis found, would range from a 2.4% drop if prison terms were trimmed by 10% (or 1.9 years), to a 7.2% cut if sentences were shortened by 30% (or 5.7 years). Such reductions represent potential cost savings. A separate 2021 analysis by SPAC found that a 3,000-person reduction in the average daily prison population, along with a reduction in staffing, could represent nearly $148 million in annual state correctional appropriations. Saltmarsh said that while these reductions in and of themselves would not automatically produce cost savings for Illinois, they could lead legislators to make different choices about how to fund IDOC’s general operations.

Prison Journalism Project taking a deep dive into "The Graying of America’s Prisons"

The Prison Journalism Project, which aspires to bring "transparency to the world of mass incarceration from the inside and training incarcerated writers to be journalists," this week is debuting a new "special project on America’s graying prison system."  This introductory article is fully titled "The Graying of America’s Prisons: In a first-of-its-kind project, PJP contributors chronicle the now ubiquitous experience of growing old behind bars."  This article starts, and sets the tone for the special project, in this way (links from the original):

Prison makes an awful elderly care facility, yet more prisons are rapidly becoming just that.

Thanks in large part to longer prison sentences and decreasing rates of parole, the number of incarcerated people 55 and older has climbed from 48,000 to 160,000 over the last two decades. 

In 2019, this age cohort made up 63% of state prison deaths for the first time since figures were tracked, according to the most recent data available. 

That’s why Prison Journalism Project is debuting a special project on America’s graying prison system.  Over the coming weeks, we’ll publish stories every Tuesday and Thursday from incarcerated writers that chronicle different facets of growing old behind bars. We will collect the stories below as they appear on the website.  Eric Finley brings us the first essay in the series, in which he explains the explosion of older people inside the Florida Department of Corrections. 

In the weeks to come, writers Mithrellas Curtis and Chanell Burnette will share stories on the legal battle for adequate senior health care inside their Virginia prison.

"Just for Kids? How the Youth Decarceration Discourse Endorses Adult Incarceration"

The title of this post is the title of this new paper authored by Hedi Viterbo now available via SSRN.  Here is its abstract:

This article lays bare three interrelated and previously overlooked pitfalls of calls to reduce or abolish youth incarceration.  First, despite their anti-carceral semblance, such calls persistently portray the overwhelming majority of people in trouble with the law — namely, adults — as incorrigible, blameworthy, and therefore as deserving of punishment and imprisonment.  Second, this ageist rhetoric often disregards adult vulnerability.  Thus, despite adults’ greater medical vulnerability to the COVID-19 disease, it is youth whom some organizations singled out or even called to prioritize for release from prisons during the coronavirus pandemic.  Third, at the heart of the youth decarceration discourse are essentialist assumptions about youth, which rest on questionable science and downplay the socially constructed dimension of age differences.  All three pitfalls epitomize a dual fault of the child rights discourse more broadly, as evidenced in other contexts: repeatedly lending legitimacy to punitiveness and apathy toward adults while also working to the detriment of children.  Doubtless, there are compelling arguments against penal confinement, but it is only decarceration across the age spectrum that can truly challenge carceral thinking — and ageism.

Texas completes its first executon of 2023

Texas completed only five executions in 2022 (and only three in 2021 and 2020), but the state already has six executions planned for the first few months of 2023. And, as detailed in this AP article, the first of those scheduled execution was carried out yesterday. Here are the basics:

A former suburban Houston police officer was executed Tuesday for hiring two people to kill his estranged wife nearly 30 years ago amid a contentious divorce and custody battle.

Robert Fratta, 65, received a lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the November 1994 fatal shooting of his wife, Farah. He was pronounced dead at 7:49 p.m., 24 minutes after the lethal dose of the powerful sedative pentobarbital began flowing into his arms.

For about three minutes before the execution began, Fratta’s spiritual adviser, Barry Brown, prayed over Fratta, who was strapped to the death chamber gurney with intravenous needles in each arm.... Asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Fratta replied: “No.”...

Prosecutors say Fratta organized the murder-for-hire plot in which a middleman, Joseph Prystash, hired the shooter, Howard Guidry. Farah Fratta, 33, was shot twice in the head in her home’s garage in the Houston suburb of Atascocita. Robert Fratta, who was a public safety officer for Missouri City, had long claimed he was innocent.

The punishment was delayed for little more than an hour until the last of a flurry of final-day appeals cleared the U.S. Supreme Court and Texas’ highest courts, the Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Fratta’s lawyers argued unsuccessfully that prosecutors withheld evidence that a trial witness had been hypnotized by investigators, leading her to change her initial recollection that she saw two men at the murder scene as well as a getaway driver....

Fratta was also one of four Texas death row inmates who sued to stop the state’s prison system from using what they allege are expired and unsafe execution drugs. That lawsuit also failed late Tuesday,

The Supreme Court and lower courts previously rejected appeals from Fratta’s lawyers that sought to review claims arguing insufficient evidence and faulty jury instructions were used to convict him. His attorneys also unsuccessfully argued that a juror in his case was not impartial and that ballistics evidence didn’t tie him to the murder weapon....

Fratta was first sentenced to death in 1996, but his conviction was overturned by a federal judge who ruled that confessions from his co-conspirators shouldn’t have been admitted into evidence. In the same ruling, the judge wrote that “trial evidence showed Fratta to be egotistical, misogynistic, and vile, with a callous desire to kill his wife.” He was retried and resentenced to death in 2009....

Fratta was the first inmate put to death this year in Texas and the second in the U.S. Eight other executions are scheduled in Texas for later this year.

"Are Schools in Prison Worth It? The Effects of and Economic Returns to Prison Education"

The title of this post is the title of this paper available via SSRN and authored by Steven Sprick Schuster and Ben Stickle. Here is its abstract:

We estimate the effects of various forms of prison education on recidivism, post-release employment, and post-release wages.  Using a sample of 148 estimates drawn from 78 papers, we conduct a meta-analyses to estimate the effect of four forms of prison education (adult basic education, secondary, vocational, and college).  We find that prison education leads to decreases in recidivism and increases in post-release employment and wages.  The largest effects are experienced by prisoners who participated in vocational or college education programs. 

We also calculate the economic returns on educational investment for both prisons and prisoners.  We find that each form of education yields large, positive returns, due primarily to the high costs of incarceration, and therefore high benefits to crime avoidance.  The returns vary across education types, with vocational education featuring the highest return to each dollar spent ($3.10) and college seeing the highest positive impact for each student participating ($16,863).

Brennan Center assesses "Criminal Legal Reform Halfway Through the Biden Administration"

The Brennan Center has this notable new analysis of some of the criminal justice work of the Biden Administration and it reaches the mid-point of Prez Biden's current term.   The piece is filled with lots of context and links and is worth a full read.  Here is how it starts and closes, with its headings along the way as a kind og summary:

A year ago, we reviewed progress made by the Biden administration toward building a fairer and more effective criminal legal system, as well as missed opportunities. Here we outline major developments since then, including setbacks and steps in the right direction.

Retrenchment on the Federal Death Penalty...

Limited Progress on Prison Reform...

Notable Nominations and Confirmations...

Updates to DOJ Charging Policy...

Limited Progress on Clemency...

Mixed Record on Immigration Detention...

New Investments in Community Violence Interventions...

Critically, the administration can continue to make progress in many of the areas named above without the need to navigate complex congressional dynamics. The power to restructure the federal clemency power, for example, lies wholly within the president’s discretion. The DOJ has already begun to significantly revamp its approach to implementing the First Step Act, and it should continue to do so. And the president could effectively suspend the death penalty on his own initiative by commuting existing federal death sentences to life in prison.

While the president must continue to work with Congress on major legislative priorities, all of these steps and more would represent significant progress on their own.

US Sentencing Commission releases "Weighing the Impact of Simple Possession of Marijuana: Trends and Sentencing in the Federal System"

This morning, the US Sentencing Commission has released this interesting new report titled "Weighing the Impact of Simple Possession of Marijuana: Trends and Sentencing in the Federal System."  This USSC webpage provides this summary and key findings:

The report entitled Weighing the Impact of Simple Possession of Marijuana: Trends and Sentencing in the Federal System updates a 2016 Commission study and examines sentences for simple possession of marijuana offenses in two respects.  Part One of the report assesses trends in federal sentencings for simple possession of marijuana since fiscal year 2014.  The report then describes the demographic characteristics, criminal history, and sentencing outcomes of federal offenders sentenced for marijuana possession in the last five fiscal years and compares them to federal offenders sentenced for possession of other drug types.

Part Two of the report examines how prior sentences for simple possession of marijuana (under both federal and state law) affect criminal history calculations under the federal sentencing guidelines for new federal offenses.  The report identifies how many federal offenders sentenced in fiscal year 2021 — for any crime type — received criminal history points under Chapter Four of the Guidelines Manual for prior marijuana possession sentences.  The report then assesses the impact of such points on those offenders’ criminal history category, one of the two components used to establish the sentencing guideline range.

Key Findings

Federal Sentencings for Simple Possession of Marijuana

• The number of federal offenders sentenced for simple possession of marijuana is relatively small and has been declining steadily from 2,172 in fiscal year 2014 to only 145 in fiscal year 2021.
• The overall trends were largely driven by one district, the District of Arizona, which accounted for nearly 80 percent (78.9%) of all federal marijuana possession sentencings since 2014.  As the number of such cases in the District of Arizona declined from a peak of 1,916 in 2014 to just two in fiscal year 2021, the overall federal caseload followed a similar pattern.
• Federal offenders sentenced for marijuana possession in the last five fiscal years tended to be male (85.5%), Hispanic (70.8%), and non-U.S. citizens (59.8%).  A little over two-thirds (70.1%) were sentenced to prison; the average prison sentence imposed was five months.
• As of January 2022, no offenders sentenced solely for simple possession of marijuana remained in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Impact of Prior Sentences for Simple Possession of Marijuana

• In fiscal year 2021, 4,405 federal offenders (8.0%) received criminal history points under the federal sentencing guidelines for prior marijuana possession sentences.  Most of the prior sentences (79.3%) were for less than 60 days in prison, including non-custodial sentences.  Furthermore, ten percent (10.2%) of these 4,405 offenders had no other criminal history points.
• The criminal history points assigned under the federal sentencing guidelines for prior marijuana possession sentences resulted in a higher criminal history category for 1,765 of the 4,405 offenders (40.1%).
• Of the 1,765 offenders whose criminal history category was impacted by a prior marijuana possession sentence, most were male (94.2%), U.S. citizens (80.0%), and either Black (41.7%) or Hispanic (40.1%).
• Nearly all (97.0%) of the prior marijuana possession sentences were for state convictions, some of which were from states that have changed their laws to decriminalize (22.2%) or legalize (18.2%) marijuana possession, states that allow for expungement or sealing of marijuana possession records (19.7%), or some combination thereof.  Prior sentences for marijuana possession from these states resulted in higher criminal history calculations under the federal sentencing guidelines for 695 offenders.

En banc Third Circuit to reconsider constitutionality of § 922(g)(1)'s felon-in-possession gun prohibition after Bruen

In this post two months ago, I noted the lengthy per curiam Third Circuit panel opinion in Range v. Garland, No. 21-2835 (3d Cir. Nov. 16, 2022) (available here), which concluded that a person convicted of state welfare fraud was "outside the class of people traditionally entitled to Second Amendment rights" and upheld felon disarmament under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) against a Second Amendment challenge.  This Range opinion was the first big circuit opinion addressing felon gun dispossession under federal law after the landmark Supreme Court Bruen ruling changes Second Amendment jurisprudence. 

But Second Amendment law is Range free: via this order entered this past Friday, the full Third Circuit decided that this panel opinion in Range is to be vacated as the case will be reheard en banc (with oral argument scheduled for February 15, 2023).  I do not know enough about the particulars of all the Third Circuit judges to make confident predictions about how Range will be resolved after en banc reconsideration.  But, generally speaking, full circuits do not take up issues en banc when most of the judges are generally content with the panel outcome.  Consequently, I can confidently predict this case is one worth watching closely and one that might make for some notable new Second Amendment law.

Some (of many) prior recent related posts:

• By 6-3 vote, SCOTUS expands Second Amendment rights by striking down NY public-carry licensing requirements 
• Are all broad felon-in-possession criminal gun statutes now constitutionally suspect after Bruen? 
• Spotlighting notable (and constitutionally suspect?) aspects of federal firearm prohibition enforcement 
• District Court declares § 922(n), which criminalizes a person under indictment from receiving a firearm, to be unconstitutional
• Notable new district court opinion strikes down federal serial number law but upholds felon possession ban applying Bruen
• Federal judge orders briefing on whether to appoint historian to resolve challenge to federal felon gun possession ban after Bruen
• New district court opinion "holds that § 922(g)(8) is unconstitutional under Bruen's framework"
• Another district court finds § 922(n), which criminalizes a person under indictment from receiving a firearm, to be unconstitutional
• Third Circuit panel upholds constitutionality § 922(g)(1)'s felon-in-possession gun prohibition after Bruen 
• Justice Department tells federal district judge "it is unnecessary ... to appoint an historian to assist" in resolving defendant's Second Amendment claim 

Wondering about the impact of AG Garland's new charging and sentencing memos

Remarkably, it has already been almost a month since Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new charging and sentencing policy guidance for Justice Department prosecutors through two memoranda (basics here).  These memos received some press attention (and some blog commentary) when first issued in mid December.  But, somewhat surprisingly, I have not since seen all that much continued commentary or further echoes concerning AG Garland's instructions to federal prosecutors to "promote the equivalent treatment of crack and powder cocaine offenses" and other notable aspects of these notable memos. 

Of course, with the holidays and all, it is surely too early to be expecting to see the full impact or fall out from these DOJ memos.  Still, given that the instructions in these memos impact every federal criminal case in some way, I am continuing to expect these memos to generate notable cases and controversies before too long.  And, while waiting, I have now had the honor and pleasure of working with former ENDY US Attorney Alan Vinegrad to write up a short overview of the memos for coming publication in the February 2023 issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter.  The draft of that overview is available for download below, and it starts this way:

On December 16, 2022, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland issued long-awaited guidance setting forth the Department of Justice's latest charging, plea and sentencing policies. He did so in the form of two memos: one providing general policies for all criminal cases (the "General Memo"), and a second providing additional policies for drug cases (the "Drug Memo").

These latest DOJ policies are generally consistent in many respects with past policies issued by Attorney General Garland's predecessors, but they break new ground (or revive previously-rescinded policies) in several areas: mandatory minimum statutes, statutory sentencing enhancements, the crack/cocaine sentencing disparity, and pre-trial diversion.  All of these new policies tack in the same direction: ameliorating the harshness of the modern-era federal sentencing regime.

Download Vinegrad and Berman for FSR on new DOJ policies