Judges to consider scope of law reducing mandatory sentences

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether prisoners reconvicted of violent gun crimes can benefit from a federal law reducing mandatory minimum sentences even if it was enacted after their first conviction.

In an order issued Tuesday, the court consolidated two appeals from prisoners who argue that the First Step Act should apply to their resentencing because the law was passed after the original sentences they received for bank robbery were overturned.

In both cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected the prisoners’ arguments that the scope of the First Step Act extends to prior offenses for …