In January 2022, the District of Columbia Superior Court granted early release to our client, who had been incarcerated for nearly 28 years of a 97 year sentence.  The client was just 22 years old when he was convicted and would not have been eligible for parole until he was nearly 100.

In granting his immediate release, the Court ruled that the client had an exemplary prison record and met the statutory factors necessary to reduce his sentence under DC’s Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (“IRAA”). Before 2021, IRAA gave incarcerated individuals the right to petition the Superior Court for early release if they committed their offenses before the age of 18, spent at least 15 years in prison, and met several statutory factors. In 2021, the DC Council expanded IRAA eligibility to individuals who committed offenses before the age of 25, thus making the client eligible for relief under the revised statute. After a hearing in which the government contested the client’s immediate release under IRAA, the Court granted the client’s motion from the bench and sentenced him to time-served with a period of supervised release.

After a long journey and nearly 30 years in prison, our client was released a few days after the ruling and is now home with his family.

The team representing the client included associates Jagmeet Singh and Tom White, and partner Malachi Jones.