First Step Act ruling is now threatening to return Patrick Dewayne Smith to federal custody two years after his release, underscoring how recent court decisions have narrowed avenues for early freedom.
Smith, 47, has been rebuilding his life in rural Tennessee since leaving prison in 2024. He attends a small brick church with his family, works two jobs, and supports nieces and nephews he had not met during his incarceration. After 13 years behind bars for a nonviolent drug offense, he hoped his next chapter had begun. Now he faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison.
A federal judge freed Smith in 2024 after the U.S. Sentencing Commission adopted guidance allowing courts to weigh legal changes when considering compassionate release for people who had served at least a decade. In May, however, the Supreme Court ruled that inmates sentenced under older, tougher statutes cannot rely on the gap between past and current penalties as a basis for release.
“Every time I get a call, I’m hoping it’s some good news. Or, you know, at least not no bad news,” Smith said.
First Step Act ruling reshapes compassionate release
The First Step Act, enacted during President Donald Trump’s first term, marked the most significant overhaul of federal sentencing in a generation. It reduced some mandatory minimums, especially for nonviolent drug crimes, and was championed by Jared Kushner, then a senior adviser, who had a personal connection to the issue. Thousands have left prison in the years since, but conflicting legal interpretations have left others in limbo.
According to FAMM, a national sentencing reform group, Smith is among roughly a dozen people who could be sent back because of the high court’s decision. The organization warns that without White House clemency, their second chances may vanish. “They’re doing everything that they should be doing,” said Shanna Rifkin, FAMM’s general counsel, citing work, community service, and family ties. “Having them reincarcerated is so unjust given that they have demonstrated their rehabilitation.”
A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Trump remains proud of signing the First Step Act and that the administration is reviewing the latest developments.
The Sentencing Commission’s 2023 policy allowed judges to consider legal changes in unusual cases when evaluating compassionate release petitions. The Department of Justice opposed that approach, contending it exceeded what the First Step Act permitted. Still, judges across the country granted release to dozens of inmates after assessing legal updates and other factors, according to FAMM.
The dispute reached the Supreme Court, which ruled 6-3 in May that disparities created by subsequent legislative changes are not “extraordinary and compelling” reasons for compassionate release. “It is hard to see how Congress’s deliberate decision not to extend newly reduced penalties to those already sentenced could be a convincing reason that ‘warrant(s)’ a reduction,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority.
Daniel Harawa, a law professor at New York University, said the decision was one of two from the last term that constrained options for people serving lengthy sentences. “I worry a lot about what this means for federal criminal justice reform,” he said.
A life sentence revisited
For Smith and others in similar positions, the ruling could force them to finish sentences that would likely be different under current law. Court filings describe Smith’s upbringing in northern Alabama, where he developed a drug addiction in his teens. At 17, he was arrested for selling crack cocaine to an informant on two occasions. Later marijuana convictions followed, and he served about three years in prison before working in construction and janitorial jobs.
Prosecutors said that in 2010 Smith became involved in a drug ring operating along the Tennessee-Alabama line and was captured on U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration wiretaps. He was convicted of drug conspiracy and money laundering after withdrawing from a plea agreement that would have recommended 12 to 14 years in exchange for cooperation. His attorneys characterized his role as “unremarkable,” but the combination of the federal convictions and his prior record resulted in a life sentence.
The sentencing judge questioned whether the punishment fit the crime but said the law left no discretion. Smith’s life term was the longest in a 20-defendant case, surpassing even the sentence for the ringleader.
Smith said he focused on work assignments and avoided disciplinary issues in prison. “What kept me sane was that faith, that belief in God,” he said. He missed small comforts like a full-sized bed and the chance to take a bath after a long day, and profound losses as well. His mother died during his first year in custody, and he did not ask relatives to cover the roughly $1,000 cost for a trip home for the funeral.
After the Sentencing Commission revised its guidance, Smith sought a reduction to time served. Nearly a year later, the court granted his request and he returned to Alabama to live with his sister and her daughter.
Last month, prosecutors moved to challenge his release, citing the Supreme Court’s decision. They argued that even under current law Smith would face a mandatory minimum of 25 years and called the earlier ruling “difficult to justify.” A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity about the pending matter, said the decision means Smith’s release is no longer valid and that the department cannot agree to a sentence below what the law requires.
Smith’s father, James Smith, a fixture at Willow Grove Missionary Baptist Church, said the threat of renewed incarceration is hard to accept. “When you got rapists and murderers and you get this guy on a nonviolent case and you want him for life, it doesn’t sit well with me,” he said.
FAMM maintains that clemency is now the only avenue to preserve freedom for Smith and others affected by the ruling.