Federal judge fights to free low-level drug offender he sentenced to 27 years
Corrected: When U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman sentenced Byron McDade, a nonviolent drug offender, in 2002 the judge chafed at the mandatory minimum sentence of 27 years. So, invoking that lowest number on the approved range, he said: “I wish I could do more, Mr. McDade,” the Washington Post reports in a lengthy feature on the judge’s renewed efforts to free the man.
Judge Friedman’s regrets never went away. McDade had gone to trial while other, much more culpable defendants took plea bargains—even the ringleader in a 750-kilogram cocaine smuggling ring got out of prison in less than eight years.
The judge had previously tried to help McDade, who now is 46 years old and scheduled for release in 2024. In 2009, Friedman urged the Bureau of Prisons to request a shorter term for McDade and for President Barack Obama to consider commuting the prison term. He got no response.
Then this year, as he was reviewing a new legal filing by McDade, the judge seized on the Justice Department’s recent formal announcement of criteria for inmates eligible for early release under a signature initiative of Attorney General Eric Holder.
McDade fit the bill: nonviolent crime; at least 10 years behind bars; and good behavior in prison.
So in an opinion (PDF) issued in April, six days after the DOJ announcement, Friedman used the most recent issue raised by McDade to again call for clemency: “While the court is powerless to reduce the sentence it was required by then-existing law to impose, the president is not,” he wrote.
The judge also urged in the opinion that McDade’s lawyers “pursue executive clemency on Mr. McDade’s behalf so justice may be done in this case.”
Those lawyers told the Washington Post they will soon present the case for clemency to the Office of the Pardon Attorney.
Correction
Updated on Oct. 20 to correct the year in which McDade is scheduled for release.
