Damian Smith couldn’t believe it when his lawyer told him last summer that he would be freed from federal prison after 16 and a half years, less than halfway through a 42-year sentence for two armed robberies he participated in as a teenager.
A judge had granted Smith’s petition for “compassionate release,” a process that gives inmates the possibility of a shorter sentence or freedom in “extraordinary and compelling” circumstances. In the past, compassionate release offered little more than false hope; the vast majority of prisoners’ requests never made it to court—and those that did were usually rejected by a judge.
That changed in 2018 after President Donald Trump signed the First Step Act, widely regarded as the most significant criminal justice reform in a generation. Among its many provisions, the law eliminated the use of “stacking”—that is, stringing together mandatory maximum sentences together consecutively—for firearm possession during a violent crime. As a result, someone convicted today of exactly what put Smith behind bars in 2009 would receive a sentence less than half as long as his.
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