United States v. Hunter

12 F.4th 555

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.Ronald HUNTER, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 21-1275

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Argued: July 28, 2021

Decided and Filed: August 30, 2021

ARGUED: Andrew Goetz, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellant. Laura Danielle Mazor, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNITY DEFENDER, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Andrew Goetz, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellant. Laura Danielle Mazor, Benton Martin, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNITY DEFENDER, Detroit, Michigan, for Appellee. Stephanie Franxman Kessler, PINALES STACHLER YOUNG & BURRELL CO., LPA, Cincinnati, Ohio, Michael L. Waldman, Courtney L. Millian, ROBBINS, RUSSELL, ENGLERT, ORSECK, UNTEREINER & SAUBER, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Amicus Curiae.

Before: GUY, GIBBONS, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.

RALPH B. GUY, JR., Circuit Judge.

Drug enterprise hitman Ronald Hunter was convicted by a federal jury of murdering a 23-year-old woman outside a nightclub. He was sentenced to life in prison. Twenty-one years later, a different judge granted Hunter's motion for compassionate release. Based upon the fact that Hunter did not get the benefit of the non-retroactive decision in United States v. Booker , 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), certain facts that existed at sentencing, and Hunter's less-than-spotless rehabilitation efforts, the district court found that together these factors amounted to the "extraordinary and compelling reasons" required for a sentence reduction. 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). The question is whether this was an abuse of discretion. We conclude that it was and reverse.

I.

A.

Ronald Hunter was a hitman for a large drug enterprise in Detroit, Michigan in the 1990s. In 1992, Hunter escaped from a parole camp and agreed to kill 23-year-old Monica Johnson. Johnson was targeted to prevent her from testifying in a kidnapping case and because she had reportedly stolen money from one of the enterprise leaders. Hunter and three accomplices tracked down Johnson at a Detroit nightclub. When Johnson exited the club, Hunter shot her in the head. As Johnson lay on the ground, Hunter shot her three or four more times. Hunter was paid one-eighth kilogram of cocaine for the murder. At the time, Hunter was about one month shy of twenty-four years of age.

Roughly five years later, a federal jury convicted Hunter of intentionally killing Johnson in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848(e)(1)(A), and using or carrying a firearm in relation to that killing, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).¹ Hunter's conviction was part of the prosecution of various offenses against twenty-one other co-defendants. In 1998, Judge Anna Diggs Taylor sentenced Hunter to life in prison plus a consecutive prison term of five years, to be followed by five years of supervised release. Based upon Hunter's Criminal History Category of VI and his offense level, the prison sentences imposed were the minimum under the version of the Sentencing Guidelines then in existence. This court affirmed Hunter's convictions on direct appeal. United States v. Sellers , 9 F. App'x 335, 337, 344 (6th Cir. 2001), cert. denied sub nom. , 535 U.S. 909, 122 S.Ct. 1213, 152 L.Ed.2d 150 (2002).

Hunter spent the next two decades unsuccessfully seeking to vacate his conviction in federal habeas proceedings, including numerous appeals to this court. See 28 U.S.C. § 2255. He also unsuccessfully sought to reduce his sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2), based upon retroactive changes to the Guidelines for certain drug offenses. Judge Taylor, and then later Judge Marianne O. Battani, handled Hunter's collateral attacks on his conviction and sentence.

B.

At about fifty-two years of age, having served twenty-one years in prison, Hunter filed a pro se motion for "compassionate release" on the basis of "extraordinary and compelling reasons" under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). A couple of weeks later, in December 2020, Hunter's case was transferred from Judge Battani to Judge Matthew F. Leitman. The district court then appointed counsel to represent Hunter on his motion. On March 3, 2021, the district court held a video hearing with counsel, and Hunter participated by phone. After the hearing, the district court decided to take the "night to think [it] through" and scheduled a video conference for the following day to issue an oral ruling.

At the video conference the next day, the district court granted Hunter's motion for compassionate release. First, the court turned to the issue of whether Hunter had demonstrated "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for his release. See § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). The court found that the risk from the COVID-19 virus and Hunter's asserted health conditions did not rise to the level of "extraordinary and compelling" because Hunter had refused the vaccine. Nonetheless, the court concluded that four other factors "taken together" amounted to "extraordinary and compelling circumstances": (1) Hunter was sentenced before the change in sentencing law announced in Booker , 543 U.S. at 245-46, 125 S.Ct. 738, which changed the nature of the Guidelines from mandatory to advisory by invalidating two statutory provisions; (2) Hunter's "relative youth" of almost twenty-four years of age when he murdered Johnson; (3) the "sentencing disparities" between Hunter and three particular co-defendants who pleaded guilty and testified for the government at trial;² and (4) Hunter's rehabilitation because, after discounting Hunter's prison discipline record, Hunter had "taught himself to read, earned a GED, completed the intensive Challenge course, completed drug treatment, [and] completed many other courses" while in prison.

Next, the district court weighed the factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). The court concluded that, on balance, the factors weighed in favor of a sentence reduction. Among other things, the court considered Hunter's "relatively youthful" age at the time of the offense as a "mitigating factor"; placed weight on Hunter's "very difficult childhood," his "substantial post-offense rehabilitation," and the six letters submitted by Hunter's family and friends, including his youth football coach; and discounted Hunter's prison discipline record. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1) (listing as a sentencing factor "the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant"). Moreover, in the court's view, granting the motion would mitigate an "unjustified disparity between the life sentence imposed on [Hunter] and the sentences imposed on [the] three co-defendants" who pleaded guilty and testified for the government, and also bring Hunter's sentence "more in line with national sentences for murder" in 2019. See § 3553(a)(6) (establishing as a sentencing factor "the need to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct").

In granting Hunter's motion, the district court reduced Hunter's sentence to time served and placed him under home confinement for the first year of his supervised release. The district court denied the government's request to stay the ruling pending appeal but agreed to stay Hunter's release for twenty-one days.

The government appealed, and this court granted the government's motion for a stay pending appeal.

II.

A.

Sentence modifications are the exception, not the rule. This is because " ‘a judgment of conviction that includes a sentence [of imprisonment] constitutes a final judgment’ and may not be modified by a district court except in limited circumstances." Dillon v. United States , 560 U.S. 817, 824, 130 S.Ct. 2683, 177 L.Ed.2d 271 (2010) (alteration in original) (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3582(b) ); see also 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(B) (authorizing sentence modifications only where "expressly permitted by statute or by Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure"). One exception to the rule of finality is set forth in what is colloquially known as the "compassionate release" statute. See § 3582(c)(1)(A).

As relevant here, § 3582(c)(1)(A) authorizes a district court to reduce a defendant's sentence only if it finds that the defendant satisfies three requirements: (1) "extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction"; (2) the "reduction is consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission"; and (3) the relevant § 3553(a) factors support the reduction. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i) ; United States v. Elias , 984 F.3d 516, 518 (6th Cir. 2021). A district court's conclusions on those issues are reviewed for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Ruffin , 978 F.3d 1000, 1005 (6th Cir. 2020). "An abuse of discretion occurs when the district court ‘relies on clearly erroneous findings of fact, uses an erroneous legal standard, or improperly applies the law.’ " Elias , 984 F.3d at 520 (quoting United States v. Flowers , 963 F.3d 492, 497 (6th Cir. 2020) ).

The government only challenges the first requirement, arguing that the district court erred in finding that there are "extraordinary and compelling reasons" for Hunter's release. Congress did not define what constitutes an "extraordinary and compelling reason," except to state that "[r]ehabilitation of the defendant alone shall not be considered an extraordinary and compelling reason." 28 U.S.C. § 994(t). Instead, Congress directed the Commission to "describe what should be considered extraordinary and compelling reasons for sentence reduction, including the criteria to be applied and a list of specific examples." Id. The Commission did just that. See USSG § 1B1.13, comment., n.1. This court has held, however, that " § 1B1.13 is not an applicable policy statement for compassionate-release motions brought directly by inmates" and thus "district courts are not bound by § 1B1.13 in defining extraordinary and compelling reasons for...