The Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia is working on behalf of individuals eligible for relief under the Second Look Amendment Act (SLAA). The SLAA went into effect on April 27, 2021. 1
The SLAA changed who is eligible for consideration under the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act (IRAA, codified at D.C. Code § 24-403.03). Previously, IRAA provided the possibility of a reduced sentence to people who were under 18 at the time they committed a crime after the person has served at least 15 years in prison. The SLAA expanded eligibility to people who were under 25 at the time of the crime (in other words, 24 years old or younger) and who have served at least 15 years of their sentence to ask the court for a reduced sentence.
IRAA does not guarantee release, and instead requires people to submit motions asking for a reduced sentence. After the motion is filed, the prosecutors respond, and a hearing is held. Then a judge decides whether or not to reduce the person’s sentence.
IRAA requires a judge to consider a number of specific factors in deciding whether the person is not a danger and the interests of justice support a reduction in the person’s sentence. The specific factors cover, among other things, the person’s entire life, from their childhood through all of their years in prison. Because the investigation has to cover decades of events, and often involves gathering and reviewing old records, attorneys and their teams often need months and sometimes more than a year to prepare an IRAA motion.
After an IRAA motion is filed, the prosecutor often then takes months to prepare and file their response. Then the defense team gets to file a reply to what the prosecutor said; that reply and the court hearing on all of the motions are usually weeks or months after that. The judge’s decision may come immediately at the hearing or may come some time after the hearing. As a result, the entire process of an IRAA case typically takes more than a year and sometimes can take two years or more.
If the judge denies a person’s IRAA motion, the person can file again, but has to wait until three years after the motion was denied. A person can file under IRAA up to three times total. Because a denial means the person has to wait three years, and because a person only has three chances total, legal teams working on a person’s IRAA case must work hard and take the time necessary to make the first motion filed as good as it can possibly be.