A bipartisan group of senators asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow defendants that have had their original sentences vacated to be resentenced under new criminal justice reforms passed in 2018.
Democratic Sens. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Cory Booker of New Jersey joined Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Mike Lee of Utah in filing a brief in support of Tony Hewitt, who was convicted in 2009 for charges related to bank robberies.
Hewitt took his case to the Supreme Court after a federal appeals court ruled his sentence could not be readjusted under the First Step Act after his original sentence had been vacated due to other errors.
He is arguing that in his resentencing, he should be subject to the new standards set in the First Step Act, which, according to Hewitt’s court filing, would reduce his minimum sentence from 105 years to 25 years.
The senators, all members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, say that the federal appeals court’s ruling against Hewitt is too narrow and the Supreme Court should set a precedent for other defendants like Hewitt to benefit from their criminal justice reforms.
“In designing the First Step Act, Congress sought to ensure that individuals who committed an offense before the Act was enacted, but who were not yet subject to a sentence for that offense, would benefit,” their filing read.
“That group, as Congress conceived of it, includes both individuals facing an initial sentencing proceeding as well as individuals facing resentencing following vacatur of a prior sentence.”
The First Step Act was passed in 2018 and signed into law by then-President Trump. It aimed to reduce prison populations by adjusting sentences so that criminals served similar time for the same offenses.
Hewitt’s case will be heard during the justices’ next term, which begins Oct. 7.
The high court will decide whether the First Step Act’s provision that reduces sentences can apply to a defendant who had his original sentence vacated but has yet to be resentenced.
A decision will likely come by the end of June.
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