The U.S. Supreme Court will hear an inmate’s argument that federal courts may consider his claim of innocence when deciding whether to reduce his sentence under the First Step Act.
The bipartisan measure approved by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in 2018, reformed aspects of the criminal justice system, making it easier for the courts to reduce penalties for certain offenders.
The justices granted the petition in Fernandez v. United States in an unsigned order on May 27. No justices dissented. The court did not explain its decision.
In its order, the court said it would look at whether factors that would warrant vacating a conviction may also count as “extraordinary and compelling reasons” for reducing a prisoner’s sentence.
In February 2013, Joe Fernandez was charged with participating in a murder-for-hire conspiracy that resulted in two deaths. He was also charged with using a firearm in carrying out the conspiracy.
The charges were related to the murders of two members of a Mexican drug cartel that had taken place 13 years before. The members allegedly visited New York to collect payment for a drug shipment, and the “drug kingpin” decided not to pay and hired a man to murder the men. The hired man testified at trial that Fernandez was enlisted as a “backup shooter,” Fernandez said in his petition filed with the Supreme Court on Nov. 13, 2024.
Fernandez said he was innocent. At trial, the government looked mostly to the hired man for testimony about Fernandez’s involvement. The hired man testified he had previously lied to law enforcement “for his own personal benefit” regarding his involvement in previous murders, his involvement in credit card fraud, and drug dealing, the petition said.
Fernandez argued the physical evidence presented at trial was insufficient for a finding of guilt but the jury nonetheless convicted him. He was given a mandatory life sentence for murder conspiracy and a consecutive life sentence for the firearm conviction. The firearms conviction was subsequently vacated because it was later deemed not to qualify as a crime of violence, the petition said.
After the First Step Act became effective, Fernandez asked the federal district court to reduce his sentence, arguing that the court had discretion under the act to do so. The court took into account the hired man’s credibility problems and reduced the sentence to time served, or about 132 months. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed that decision in June 2024, saying potential innocence cannot be argued as an “extraordinary and compelling reason” to reduce a sentence, according to the petition.
“The Second Circuit’s decision warrants this Court’s review because it deepens confusion in the 12 [circuit courts of appeals] concerning the discretion that district court judges may exercise when considering whether to reduce a sentence under the federal compassionate release statute,” the petition said.
The federal government urged the Supreme Court in a Feb. 7 brief not to accept the appeal.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission “does not permit reliance on the asserted invalidity of a conviction or sentence in the determination of whether extraordinary and compelling reasons for a sentence reduction exist,” according to the brief.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in its new term that begins in October.
This article by Matthew Vadum appeared May 30, 2025, in The Epoch Times.