Chris Epps' petition to win compassionate release from federal prison went down in flames after U.S. District Judge Henry Wingate denied his petition yesterday.
Mr. Epps suffers from an array of illnesses, such as hyperlipidermia, hypertension, unspecified glaucoma, enlarged prostate, and gout. (See Exhibit 1, Medical Record). Most importantly, concerning this motion, Mr. Epps has suffered from a confirmed case of COVID-19.As the Court is well aware, the health risks associated with COVID-19 are grave and can be fatal. The hazardous situation caused by COVID-19, combined with the law analyzed below, justifies allowing Mr. Epps to serve the remaining months of his sentence on house arrest.
Judge Wingate held a hearing in December 2022. Earlier post. Years passed until Judge Wingate finally rejected the petition yesterday.
The order states Epps was placed in ICU due to complications from the Covid-19 virus.
Judge Wingate pointed out Epps has only served 63 months of his 235-month sentence. He currently resides at FCI Seagoville, Texas.
The Court held it does not have the authority to release Epps to house arrest. Such authority lies solely with the Bureau of Prison and Attorney General. Judge Wingate said the Court would instead "evaluate" the petition as a request for sentence reduction under the compassionate release statute.
Federal courts have consistently held the mere existence of Covid-19 is not grounds for compassionate release as Lamar Adams learned. The Fifth Circuit has decreed Epps' other conditions such as Hypertension and hyperlipidemia do not qualify for compassionate release. The prison does a good job of treating his health.
Judge Wingate said Epps was no ordinary criminal as he rejected a reduction of sentence:
A dispassionate examination of the magnitude of Epps's criminal conduct reveals a staggering betrayal of the public trust. Epps was not a low-level offender motivated by a momentary lapse of judgment; neither was he a “temporary” offender who quit his criminal escapade after only a few times during which he dipped a greedy hand into the pool of crime. Further, he did not plan, commit, execute his crime as a “lone wolf”, acting stealthily, but by himself; rather, he was the central architect and principal beneficiary of one of the most egregious, sweeping, and destructive public official corruption scandals in modern Mississippi history. Operating from his top-ranking position as the Commissioner of the MDOC15, Epps systematically unlawfully weaponized16, utilized and stretched his governmental authority for personal gain. Between 2008 and June 2014, Epps orchestrated a corrupt enterprise wherein he demanded and accepted nearly $1,400,000 in clandestine bribes and kickbacks. In exchange for these illicit payoffs, Epps personally illegally approved hundreds of millions of dollars in lucrative state correctional contracts, subverting the competitive bidding process, defrauding the citizens of Mississippi, and injecting lethal poison into the corpus of a trusting, vulnerable administrative process of the state's penal system.
The Court held shortening the sentence would "make a mockery" of the criminal justice system. Thus Chris Epps will continue to rot away in federal prison -which is where he needs to be.
12 comments:
I would say taking four years to issue a ruling also makes a mockery of justice.
Gosh, if only you would have thought about that when you were screwing over the folks that paid your salary all of those years...
@1:18 or, helps you make the point that I'm not letting you out and quit trying
Too bad he didn’t hire “Judge” Carlose Moore as his attorney. He probably would have been released by now. LOL
Darn, I was planning to loan him a $1,000,000 when he got out at a 10% fee to get him back on his feet.
Epps is right where he needs to be.
Nothing for nothing but Wingate needs to retire.
He should have been personal friends with the District Attorney. In Rankin County, that will get you a free pass on corruption and malfeasance…just ask Sheriff Bryan Bailey. He knows from personal experience. What is is what is.
He is still drawing his retirement benefits while locked up. He didn’t lose those IN spite of the fear that those funds are having issues and may not be able to sustain all those who ARE entitled to receive them.
Now if they could just look and realize that similar but MUCH worse continues as we speak.
Isn’t it time to take a look at the current Commissioner Burl Cain? How long…Oh how long? He makes Epps look like a choir boy.
Epps should be released. He’s a white collar criminal and has paid some time, although I do t know how much restitution he’s paid back.
To incarcerate a guy like this when violent criminals walk around seems silly.
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