Originally published March 30, 2021. Statements about the law were updated in October 2026; the box below gives today’s rules.
Outcomes vary. A past result does not predict or guarantee the outcome of any other case.
In March 2021, a federal judge granted compassionate release to Eric Leighton Scully. Scully, 36, is a cancer survivor with non-allergic asthma, and he was held at FCI Lompoc during a severe COVID-19 outbreak.
United States v. Scully, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59641
Eric Leighton Scully was serving a 78-month sentence, with a projected release date of December 31, 2023. FCI Lompoc, where he was held, at one point had the highest COVID-19 infection rate of any Bureau of Prisons facility in the United States.
In 2016, Scully was convicted of money laundering tied to selling marijuana from 2012 to 2014. In 2017, while he was on supervised release (court-ordered supervision after prison), another illegal marijuana grow he ran caught fire.
The fire was caused by the BHO extraction process, which turns marijuana into butane honey oil. Scully was the only person hurt.
He committed his current offense while on supervised release. Even so, the court agreed that his offenses, while serious, had several features that favored a sentence reduction.
The court said Scully had shown a remarkable and sincere change in attitude since he first appeared in court. It found that he is no longer a danger to the community.
His release plan includes a five-year term of supervised release, with home confinement for the rest of his original sentence and the conditions set in his original judgment. As part of supervised release, Scully may live at a reentry center for up to 120 days.
If you want help with a compassionate release request, book a consultation.