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77 Stan. L. Rev. Online 1 (2024)

handle is hein.journals/slro77 and id is 1 raw text is: ESSAY The Pardon Power and Federal Sentence- Reduction Motions A Response to Yost and Flowers Jaden M. Lessnick* Introduction There exists in our law a principled mechanism for imbuing the federal sentencing system with needed post-sentencing flexibility: 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). This process is colloquially known as compassionate release, but compassionate release is a misnomer; compassion is not the standard, and release is not the most probable outcome. The statute instead speaks of sentence reductions.1 Section 3582(c)(1)(A) allows courts to reduce a previously imposed sentence upon motion by the prisoner if: (a) the movant has identified extraordinary and compelling reasons for a sentence reduction; (b) a sentence-reduction comports with the Section 3553(a) sentencing factors; and (c) a reduction is consistent with applicable policy statements promulgated by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.2 As Congress put it, Section 3582(c)(1)(A) is a safety valve that allows prisoners to obtain judicial review of a sentence in light of changed circumstances.3 The compassionate release misnomer is easy to understand: Perhaps the most salient group of beneficiaries is comprised of prisoners with terminal illnesses.4 Viewed abstractly, Section 3582(c)(1)(A) might look like a mercy * J.D. 2023, University of Chicago Law School. Law clerk to Judge Jay S. Bybee, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. I thank Judge Bybee and T. Hunter Mason for characteristically incisive comments and discussions. I am also grateful to the editors of the Stanford Law Review Online, whose hard work greatly improved this piece. All views and errors are mine alone. 1. United States v. Brooker, 976 F.3d 228, 237 (2d Cir. 2020) (Calabresi, J.). 2. See 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). 3. S. REP. No. 98-225, at 121 (1983). 4. See, e.g., U.S. SENT'G GUIDELINES MANUAL § 1B1.13(b)(1)(A) (U.S. SENT'G COMM'N 2023). 1

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