Dying man granted release under First Step Act dies (2019)

Originally published March 27, 2019. Statements about the law were updated in October 2026; the box below gives today’s rules.

What the law says now (October 2026). A federal judge can reduce a sentence for “extraordinary and compelling” reasons (reasons that are especially unusual and convincing). You must first ask the warden in writing. You can file in court 30 days after the warden gets the request, or sooner if you finish the Bureau of Prisons’ appeals (18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)). The judge also weighs the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). See who may seek compassionate release.

Age. A court may consider a person who is 65 or older, has a serious decline in health because of aging, and has served at least 10 years or 75 percent of the sentence, whichever is less (U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13(b)(2)). A separate rule covers people 70 or older who have served 30 years under 18 U.S.C. § 3559(c) (§ 3582(c)(1)(A)(ii)).

Outcomes vary. A past result does not predict or guarantee the outcome of any other case.

Court record: United States v. Cheatham, No. 3:06-cr-00095 (E.D. Tenn.).

Steve Cheatham, a federal prisoner dying of cancer, asked a court for compassionate release under the new First Step Act, and the judge said yes. But he died in prison before anyone could tell him he was going home.

federal compassionate release

What happened to Steve Cheatham

Cheatham was diagnosed with advanced-stage cancer late last year and given a few months to live.

Before December 2018, his only option would have been to ask the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for a sentence reduction, or compassionate release. The Bureau would have slowly pushed paperwork around and then, within a few months or a year, denied his request.

The First Step Act, signed into law on December 21, 2018, changed that. Prisoners still have to ask the BOP for compassionate release. But now, when the Bureau says no (which, at the time, it did in virtually every case), the prisoner can ask a federal court directly.

That is what Cheatham did. The court said yes and ordered the BOP to release him.

The judge’s order came just days after federal public defenders got involved. Cheatham’s wife quickly began finalizing his release plans. But when she called the prison chaplain to ask him to share the good news, it was too late. Cheatham died before he could be told he would be released.

His story is not unusual

Data analyzed by the New York Times and the Marshall Project found that between 2013 and 2017, at least 266 federal prisoners died while waiting for a decision on a compassionate release request, or after their request was denied. In that same period, the Bureau approved only six percent of all compassionate release requests.

How the First Step Act changed things

The changes the First Step Act made to compassionate release are significant. Before, the Bureau of Prisons guarded the door to the courthouse. Now, after waiting no more than 30 days after making a request to the BOP, a prisoner can go straight to court.

“There’s a road map now for this, and a way home for people that we’ve never seen before,” Mary Price of Families Against Mandatory Minimums told the Times.

Don’t wait to start

With compassionate release, time matters. If you or your loved one may qualify for compassionate release, do not wait to begin the process. When this was written, the Bureau was not expected to suddenly start granting requests, so the faster you got to court, the better.

The request to the BOP and the motion to the court must be well documented and carefully written. If you are going to apply, pay attention to every detail. Criminal Center handles federal compassionate release matters and can deal with the BOP and the court for you.

If you want help with a compassionate release request, book a consultation.