Court Cites Inmate's Vaccinated Status in Denying Motion for a Sentence Reduction

 

In 2018, the District Court sentenced Millicent Traylor to 135 months in prison after a jury found her guilty of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks, and five counts of health care fraud. It subsequently resentenced her to 120 months imprisonment.

At issue in the Sixth Circuit's abbreviated published opinion was Traylor's motion to reduce her sentence pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 3582. In her motion before the District Court, Traylor argued that her long list of health ailments (e.g., diabetes, sleep apnea, asthma, obesity, being a recent organ transplant recipient, and use of immunosuppresive therapy) made her more susceptible to contracting and becoming severely ill from COVID-19 while in custody. The District Court denied her motion, finding that she had failed to raise an "extraordinary and compelling reason" to warrant a sentence reduction because she had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine; thus, making her less likely to contract and become severely ill from COVID-19. The Sixth Circuit subsequently held that the District Court did not abuse its discretion in denying Traylor's motion because the COVID-19 vaccine was available at Taylor's facility and because she was fully vaccinated.

The Court's opinion, albeit brief, is instructive in the COVID-19 era for those inmates who are at particular risk from COVID-19. To this author, it is interesting to consider whether the Court's analysis would change in light of the rise of the Delta variant, as well as other variants that might arise in the future for which vaccines are less effective.