NACDL - Salvagno v. Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons

Salvagno v. Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons

Brief for Amici Curiae Center on the Administration of Criminal Law, FAMM, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, in Support of Appellant and Reversal

Salvagno v. Director, Federal Bureau of Prisons

Brief Details

Case No.: 17-3997
Brief Filed: December 19, 2018
Jurisdiction: 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals

Key Topics in the Brief

Sentence Reduction Motions | Bureau of Prisons (BOP) | Extraordinary and Compelling Reasons | 1984 Sentencing Reform Act, 18 U.S.C.§ 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) | District Court Jurisdiction

Briefs

Salvagno-v-Director,-Federal-Bureau-of-Prisons-amicus.pdf

Prior Decision

2017 WL 5159214 (D.Conn. Nov. 7, 2017

Argument(s)

The governing statute, properly construed, does not authorize BOP to refuse to file a sentencing reduction motion for reasons that Congress expressly assigned to a Court for consideration. BOP has routinely refused to recommend the filing of sentence reduction motions for plainly qualified candidates, with results that are not only unlawful but also tragic. District courts have jurisdiction and authority to require BOP to comply with the statutory scheme and file sentence reduction motions for qualified candidates, so that sentencing judges can decide whether, when and to what extent a sentence should be reduced for “extraordinary and compelling reasons.”