Compassionate Release Granted Because of COVID-19 Risk for Defendant With Tuberculosis
Recent Cases in Law and Neuroscience, Curated by the Center for Law, Brain & Behavior and the Shen Neurolaw Lab with support from the Dana Foundation
On December 7, 2020, a United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan granted the compassionate release of Raynard Versatile Crowe because of “the risk posed to Crowe from his medical conditions and the spread of COVID-19 at USP Terre Haute[.]”
The opinion noted that Crowe had experienced behavioral issues, physical abuse, and substance use before the age of 12, and that he has spent the majority of his life imprisoned, beginning with a juvenile detention center at age 15.
Crowe, now 39 years old, was incarcerated due to a series of armed robberies, and was scheduled to be released on April 31, 2021. He suffers from tuberculosis, “a condition that is alone sufficient to constitute extraordinary and compelling circumstances when coupled with the heightened risk of catching COVID-19 in prison settings.” The opinion noted that both COVID-19 and tuberculosis affect the lungs, and while tuberculosis may not make Crowe more likely to contract COVID-19, someone with tuberculosis would have high risk of complications if they contracted COVID-19.
The court then noted that while Crowe’s crimes were serious, “they were not committed in a vacuum. Crowe has been ensnared in the criminal legal system since the age of fifteen… In many ways, the seriousness of the instant offenses reflects the fact that institutionalization from such a young age, rather than providing rehabilitation, often has a criminogenic effect.” The court also noted that all but the most recent crimes had been committed when Crowe was a teenager, and stated that, “Given the well-accepted differences between juvenile and adult brains, the Court does not find these prior bad acts to be a reliable barometer of Crowe’s danger moving forward.” Because Crowe faced a significant health risk in prison and the court found that he did not present a large danger to the public, the court granted his motion for compassionate release and ordered that he be immediately released from prison, to begin his three-year term of supervised release. Crowe was also ordered to quarantine for fourteen days upon his release from prison.
Citation: United States v. Crowe, 2020 WL 7185648
Keywords: Michigan, COVID-19, tuberculosis, compassionate release, juvenile, adolescent brain
This post is the 88th post as part of an ongoing Center for Law, Brain & Behavior (CLBB) series tracking the latest developments in law and neuroscience cases. To see previous posts about recent cases, see the full case archive on the CLBB website. To see updates on legal scholarship, see the Neurolaw News, hosted by the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Law and Neuroscience. This project is made possible through support of the Dana Foundation.
