Jimmy Dale Martin

Clemency for Jimmy Dale Martin

At 70 years old, Jimmy Dale Martin has spent the last 35 years in federal prison serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. If he were sentenced under today's law, he would have received a 25-year sentence and been home more than a decade ago.

The First Step Act reformed the harsh 851 sentencing enhancement that once required a mandatory life sentence in cases like Jimmy's. Relying on those reforms, Jimmy sought compassionate release, arguing that under today's law he would have completed his sentence years ago.

The government did not dispute the facts. It conceded that, under current law, Jimmy would receive a 25-year sentence. Yet it argued that because Congress did not make the reform retroactive, Jimmy should remain in prison for the rest of his life.

The court agreed.

The injustice is even more glaring because prisoners with nearly identical claims have been granted compassionate release in other federal circuits. Jimmy's fate has turned not on the merits of his case, but on his zip code.

Since then, Jimmy's health has deteriorated dramatically. He now resides in the prison hospice wing. Diabetes has already cost him part of his leg and caused multiple life-threatening complications, requiring months of hospitalization at enormous taxpayer expense.

Without executive clemency, Jimmy Dale Martin will die in federal prison—not because he poses a danger to society, not because today's law demands it, but because he was sentenced under a law Congress has since repudiated. Mercy cannot restore the decades he has lost, but it can ensure that his final years are spent with his family rather than in a prison hospice wing.