United States v. Douglas

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. REGINALD DOUGLAS, JR., Defendant.

Crim. Action No. 10-171-4 (JDB)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

January 20, 2021

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Defendant Reginald Douglas, Jr. moves for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and the unusual circumstances of his guilty plea. He asks the Court to reduce his sentence to time served, imposing any conditions the Court deems necessary for public safety. See Emergency Mot. for Compassionate Release ("Def.'s Mot.") [ECF No. 358] at 2. Douglas is a fifty-year-old African-American man currently incarcerated at Ray Brook Federal Correctional Institution ("FCI Ray Brook"), a medium-security facility in Ray Brook, New York. See id. at 1-2, 31. The history of this case will be detailed further below, but in short: Douglas has served almost fifty months of a 120-month sentence for second-degree murder in connection with the 1990 killing of Anthony Morrisey, imposed in 2012 to run consecutive to a state sentence he was then serving in New York for a different homicide offense. Judgment [ECF No. 253] at 2.¹ He has been incarcerated continuously for twenty-eight years since January 1993. His current projected release date is in February 2026, and he isprojected to become eligible for home detention in August 2025. Gov't's Opp'n Ex. 1 at 1-2. But if and when BOP were to credit Douglas for the eight months he served from 1990-91, see Judgment at 2, those dates would presumably move to June 2025 and December 2024, respectively.

Now, however, Douglas argues that his medical conditions, including Stage 2 uncontrolled hypertension, increase his risk of severe illness or death if he were to contract COVID-19, constituting "extraordinary and compelling reasons" that warrant his immediate release. Def.'s Mot. at 1, 14-15. He argues that the "irregularities in his underlying conviction" provide separate grounds for his release amidst the pandemic.² Id. at 15. The government opposes the motion, arguing that (1) Douglas has not established any "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for release under § 3582(c); (2) Douglas remains a danger to the community; and (3) the relevant § 3553(a) factors weigh against release. See Gov't's Opp'n [ECF No. 362] at 2. For the reasons explained below, the Court finds that Douglas's health risks do present extraordinary and compelling reasons for release and that the balance of factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) supports granting his motion.

Background

This case is marked by an unusual and convoluted history dating back several decades. Many of the tragic outcomes of this case fall squarely on Douglas's shoulders, and his responsibility in the cruel and senseless murder of Mr. Morrisey cannot be overstated. But other circumstances outside of Douglas's control bear mention here as well.

Reginald Douglas was born in 1970 in Harlem to a fifteen-year-old mother and sixteen-year-old father with family ties to the brutally violent drug trade then endemic to the neighborhood. See Presentence Investigation Report ("PSIR") [ECF No. 246] ¶¶ 35, 37; Def.'s Mot. at 3-4. According to statements submitted by Douglas and his mother, Douglas's childhood was highly traumatic: he recalls "witnessing drug addicts overdosing" and ducking bullets "as a man was being murdered mere feet away" from him and his mother. See Sept. Mot. Ex. B [ECF No. 345-2] at 2; . When Douglas was just five years old, his father was shot and killed. PSIR at 12. This caused a change in his behavior, which led his mother to take him to a psychiatrist who "revealed that Reginald was suffering from trauma from his father's death." See Sept. Mot. Ex. E [ECF No. 345-5] at 2. But Douglas never received any psychological treatment for his trauma and he soon became involved in the drug trade at just eleven years old. PSIR ¶¶ 40, 48. His young mother attempted to deal with Douglas's worsening behavioral problems by moving him out of New York, first to Nevada and later to Virginia Beach after she remarried, but he frequently made his way back to the streets of Harlem. Id. ¶ 39; Sept. Mot. Ex. E at 2. After attending middle school in Virginia Beach for three years, Douglas dropped out of school before completing the seventh grade. PSIR ¶ 53. Eventually, his stepfather brought the teenaged Douglas to Washington, D.C. and "exposed him" to a "violent environment" in what was then "the murder capital of the Nation." See Sept. Mot. Ex. E at 4. In his late teenage years, Douglas was arrested on multiple occasions in the D.C. area and accrued two convictions on weapons charges in Maryland, plus an assault conviction in New York, prior to the instant offense. PSIR ¶¶ 24-34.

On July 12, 1990, when Douglas was nineteen years old, he and co-defendant David Long kidnapped Anthony Morrisey, a twenty-year-old drug courier whom Douglas, Long, and their associates believed to have large amounts of drugs and cash. See id. ¶¶ 12-14; Gov't's Opp'n to Defs.' Mots. to Sever ("Opp'n to Severance") [ECF No. 59] at 2. They held Morrisey at gunpointand demanded a cash ransom from Morrisey's friends and parents. See PSIR ¶ 13. When Douglas and Long "learned that the police were in the area," they "walked Mr. Morrisey . . . toward the alley in the rear of the house" where they were holding him and "[w]ith David Long standing nearby, [Douglas] shot Mr. Morrisey in the head at least two times." Factual Proffer [ECF No. 212] at 1-2. Mr. Morrisey was shot a total of four times by Douglas and Long and died from his wounds. Id. at 1.

Douglas was arrested on August 2, 1990 and was held without bond in the D.C. jail pending trial. See Mem. Op. & Order (Feb. 8, 2012) ("Dismissal Order") [ECF No. 113] at 2. An indictment against Douglas for the Morrisey murder was handed down in March 1991, which was superseded in April 1991 by an indictment naming five defendants. Mem. Op. & Order (Mar. 13, 2012) ("Reconsideration Order") [ECF No. 130] at 2. The co-defendants' trials were severed on the day set for the initial trial, and the government chose to try two of the co-defendants first in hopes of securing their cooperation against Douglas and the other co-defendants. Dismissal Order at 3. Douglas's trial was ultimately rescheduled for January 29, 1992, then continued until March 2 due to the prosecutor's involvement in another trial. Id. When the government requested another two weeks to locate witnesses, the trial judge denied the request and dismissed the case for want of prosecution on March 5, 1992. Id. Douglas was then transferred on a detainer to Prince George's County, Maryland, where he remained incarcerated on gun charges for which he was sentenced to time served on July 7, 1992. See Def.'s Mot. at 5; PSIR ¶ 26.

Upon his release, Douglas returned to New York City where, just months later in January 1993, he committed another shooting homicide for which he was convicted and sentenced to twenty-five years to life. PSIR ¶ 27. While Douglas was incarcerated in New York for that offense, in June 2010 the government indicted David Long, along with two other men not involvedin the Morrisey murder, for a drug distribution conspiracy including several violent crimes (the "Long conspiracy"). See Dismissal Order at 3. In the course of investigating that conspiracy, the government realized that Douglas, Long, and another of the original co-defendants in the Morrisey murder—since deceased—were never brought to trial for the 1990 offense. Id. at 3-4. On April 5, 2011, the government filed a superseding indictment in the Long conspiracy case naming Douglas as a defendant and charging him and Long with the Morrisey murder as well as conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute narcotics. See Superseding Indictment [ECF No. 33] at 2, 6.

This Court dismissed the murder charges against Douglas on February 8, 2012 on Sixth Amendment speedy trial grounds. See Dismissal Order at 1. But after the government "laid out substantially more information on the factual background of this case and a lengthier legal argument" on the speedy trial issues underlying the dismissal, the Court reinstated the charges. See Reconsideration Order at 1, 10. On April 30, 2012, a superseding information was filed against Douglas alone for a drug conspiracy and the Morrisey murder, see Superseding Information [ECF No. 150], and on July 10, 2012, Douglas pled guilty to second-degree murder while armed in violation of D.C. Code §§ 22-2103 & 4502, see Plea Agreement [ECF No. 213] ¶ 1. The government dismissed the drug conspiracy count. Id. ¶ 3. Pursuant to the plea agreement, this Court sentenced Douglas to 360 months' imprisonment, with all but 120 months suspended, to run consecutive to his New York sentence, followed by 60 months' probation. See Judgment at 2-3; Plea Agreement ¶ 3. The Court recommended that BOP credit Douglas for eight months and nine days of time served while Douglas was incarcerated pending trial in D.C. Superior Court during 1990-91, though, as noted above, it appears BOP has not done so. Compare id. at 2, with Gov't's Opp'n Ex. 1 at 2. His federal sentence began to run when he was granted parole by the New YorkState Parole Board on August 10, 2017. See Def.'s Mot. at 31; Gov't's Opp'n Ex. 1 at 2.

Legal Framework

Under the First Step Act of 2018, a court may, upon motion of the BOP or a defendant, reduce a defendant's term of imprisonment if, "after considering the factors set forth in [18 U.S.C. §] 3553(a) to the extent that they are applicable," it concludes that "extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction" and that "such a reduction is consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission." 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). The applicable policy statements require, inter alia, that the defendant's release not pose "a danger to the safety of any other person or to the community." See U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13. "As the...