About ten years ago Jeremy Zullo was sentenced to a mandatory minimum fifteen-years’ imprisonment. After the passage of the First Step Act of 2018, he sought compassionate release in the district court, arguing that his sentence was unjustly long, that he has shown exemplary rehabilitation, that he maintains close relationships with his family, that he was a teenager at the time of his offense, and that the government breached his plea agreement. The district court held that,despite the First Step Act’s changes to compassionate release, see18 U.S.C. § 3852(c)(1)(A), the previously enacted United States Sentencing Guideline § 1B1.13, Application Note 1(D) remained good law and limited the applicablecircumstances the court could consider only to matters of poor health, old age, and family care needs. We disagree and hold that, absent updated guidance from the Sentencing Commission, the First Step Act freed district courts to consider any potentially extraordinary and compelling reasons that a defendant might raise for compassionate release. We therefore VACATE and REMAND for further proceedings.
Johanna Zapp, Esq.
David Zapp, Esq.