A federal judge has granted the compassionate release of a 40-year-old Columbia inmate who had been convicted over marijuana and money laundering offenses in 2012.
“The Court finds further incarceration is not needed to reflect the seriousness of Defendant’s crimes, promote respect for the law, or provide just punishment for his offenses,” U.S. District Judge Stephen Bough for the Western District stated in his order.
Judge Bough issued the order that freed Eric Scott McCauley under the 2018 First Step Act, according to media reports.
The First Step Act was signed into law by former President Trump to reduce the federal prison population and eases mandatory minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses.
“In times past the Bureau of Prisons was the only entity that could modify a sentence and they typically released people because they were elderly, had health issues or because there was a family issue,” said McCauley’s attorney Barry Grissom, a former federal prosecutor from 2010 to 2016. “The First Step Act now gives federal judges an opportunity to take a look at that if the Bureau of Prisons doesn't respond within 30 days.”
McCauley filed an application with the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in June 2020 and when the agency did not respond, Grissom filed a motion on McCauley’s behalf that Judge Bough approved.
“In Eric's cases, his mom, unfortunately, was just recently diagnosed with Parkinson's and she needed him,” Grissom told the St Louis Record. “He had served 12 of 23 years. So, the court felt he had served an ample amount of time to address the seriousness of the offense and the sentence itself was unduly burdensome really and overly long. It’s a situation where the court considered the changing attitudes of marijuana and took a different look at it. It arises to what's called extraordinary and compelling circumstances.”
McCauley’s compassionate release comes at a time when there is a nationwide push to reform the criminal justice system. Just last week, Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Missouri) co-sponsored a bill that would federally decriminalize possession of all illicit drugs and place the Secretary of Health and Human Services in charge of regulation so that substance abuse is treated as a health issue, not a crime.
“Marijuana is still considered a Schedule 1 drug under the Federal Controlled Substances Act right next to heroin and as long as it's on the books, federal officers can still investigate and pursue, and a U.S. attorney can still prosecute but there has been a sea change in the prosecution of cases over the last five to 10 years,” Grissom said. “It's not a priority like it once was.”
Bough was nominated to the federal judiciary by former President Obama.
“I think that the judge saw the issue of compassionate release and didn't have to address the arguments we were making in our motion about changing attitudes towards marijuana,” Grissom said.
McCauley had been involved in a very large marijuana business when he was arrested.
“He’s non-violent,” Grissom added. “There were no guns or weapons involved of any kind and 23 years, looking at marijuana the way we do through the prism of today, that's just an enormously long sentence when you consider that under the federal sentencing guidelines, kidnappers could be sentenced to only 10 years and people who produce the most vile child pornography and spread it on the internet could be sentenced to only 15 years.”