| Sentence of 165 Months
Reduced to 153 After Pro Se Bid
Soon Judge Involved Supervision
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
SDNY
COURTHOUSE,
July 23 – Rashawn Davidson was
sentenced to 165 months in
prison as one of 29 defendants
in drug case in 2018. In April
2024 he filed a pro se motion
for a reduction in sentence
and on July 23, after the
appointment of CJA counsel,
the motion was partially
granted. His sentence was
reduced by a year, to 153
months.
The
decision was by U.S. District
Court for the Southern
District of New York Judge
Richard M. Berman, whose
judge-involved supervision
work Inner City Press covers
closely.
He calls
it Court-Involved Supervised
Release and in his June 10
report, "Judges Need to Walk
the Walk" he emphasizes that
"By re-focusing their
attention upon criminal case
supervision, judges will make
an enormous positive impact
upon recidivism
(re-offending)."
The
approach involved six to ten
supervision proceedings a
year, not just waiting to see
if there is a violation of
supervised release.
To Judge Berman's
credit, he does many, even
most of these by video
conference, despite some
arguing this is not available
in Federal criminal cases.
Even more to his
credit, he dockets a public
call-in line, which often
Inner City Press is the only
one to use. It is appreciated.
Judge
Berman's report has anonymized
case studies and statistics.
For now we'll note that his
approach is being passed on.
For
example, SDNY Magistrate Judge
Sarah L. Cave on June 10, in a
proceeding only covered by
Inner City Press, overrode a
remand recommendation by
Probation and released a
defendant, on the condition
that he have a call with her
(and Probation) the following
week.
The approach may
not always work - what does? -
but it can't hurt.
Once, admittedly,
Inner City Press covered the
proceeding of a defendant who
said, Enough calls, I'd rather
just serve my time and be
done. Sadly, the defendant is
dead. Inner City Press will
continue to cover such
reports, and cases.
The sentence
reduction case is US v.
Davidson, 15-cr-288 (Berman)
***
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