Fascinating compassionate release ruling based on clear sentencing error without other means of remedy Regular readers are likely familiar with many of my (pre-COVID) prior posts making much of the provision of the FIRST STEP Act allowing federal courts to directly reduce sentences under the (so-called compassionate release) statutory provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) without awaiting a motion by the Bureau of Prisons. I have long considered this provision a big deal because, if applied appropriately and robustly, it could and should enable many hundreds (and perhaps many thousands) of federal prisoners to have excessive prison sentences reduced on a variety of grounds. A helpful reader alerted me to an especially interesting example of the granting of a sentencing reduction in