April Rice became a methamphetamine user at a young age in Galesburg, Illinois, and had many scrapes with the law, including a felony conviction for meth possession. So, when she pleaded guilty to a more serious charge—conspiracy to manufacture and distribute meth—in 2012, she faced an especially harsh prison term. Because she had a previous conviction for possession, that meant the ten-year minimum sentence for manufacture and distribution could be “enhanced” by an additional ten years. Rice began serving her twenty-year sentence in 2014.
April Rice, mother of two
In 2022, the Bureau of Prisons permitted Rice to serve the remainder of her sentence on home confinement, in recognition of her rehabilitation and her low risk of recidivism. Even though she was out of prison and doing well, however, Rice faced the prospect of returning to prison because legislators proposed revoking home confinement for people like her.
Then on December 12, Rice learned that she is one of 1,500 individuals whose prison sentences have been commuted by President Biden—an action strongly supported by the Law School’s Criminal and Juvenile Justice Clinic (CJJC). Erica Zunkel, the CJJC’s director, has been a leading advocate encouraging Biden to commute unjust sentences before Donald Trump took office, and on December 7 she penned a piece in The Hill urging Biden to use his clemency powers robustly. Five days later, Biden’s clemency grants were believed to be the broadest in presidential history.
CARES Act Home Confinement
“I would like to say it was my piece that did it or was part of it,” Zunkel said. “But there have been advocacy groups pushing for Biden to do something about all of these folks who are on CARES Act home confinement.”
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) contained a provision for nonviolent, low-risk offenders such as Rice to serve sentences in home confinement, and all 1,500 of the Biden commutations were for people in that category. Although the incoming administration’s position on them is unknown, the Office of Legal Counsel in the first Trump administration issued an opinion calling for their return to prison.
Clinical Professor Erica Zunkel
In 2023, Zunkel launched the Excessive Sentences Project, in which she and her students pursue post-conviction relief for federal prisoners serving extreme sentences. This project builds on work Zunkel began during her time as the associate director of the Law School’s Federal Criminal Justice Clinic (FCJC). In her piece for The Hill, Zunkel mentioned two current prisoners—Robin Peoples and Dion Walker (see adjoining story)—whom she and her clinic students represent. She also highlighted Rice, who is not directly connected to Zunkel’s clinic or the Excessive Sentences Project, but who did receive pro bono legal representation from a recent UChicago alum, Jaden M. Lessnick, ’23.
Zunkel works with the Compassionate Release Clearinghouse, run by the nonprofit organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, which monitors potential compassionate-release cases and pairs those prisoners with pro bono lawyers. Rice’s case emerged, and Zunkel referred it to Lessnick, one of her former clinic students.
Pro Bono Assistance from UChicago Alum
“Erica said, ‘Hey, this case just came across my desk; it might be something you would be interested in,’” recalled Lessnick. “I said, ‘Yes, always happy to do compassionate-release work,’ but especially when it’s referred by Erica.”
Rice’s case presented Lessnick with an interesting challenge. Although the 2018 First Step Act had eliminated the enhancement provision that had added ten years to Rice’s sentence, it was not retroactive. Rice, who is living with an aunt in Washington state and is gainfully employed, initially filed a pro se compassionate-release motion. She argued that her sentence should be reduced by five years based on the First Step Act’s changes to drug sentencing enhancements. However, the First Step Act also eliminated previous simple possession as grounds for enhancement, so Lessnick believed Rice had a stronger case than the one she presented on her own and which was denied by a judge. He began working up a renewed compassionate-release motion arguing that Rice deserved no more prison time.
Jaden Lessnick, '23
“We did a lot of work gathering facts and case law to supplement the motion,” he said. “We thought that before Biden leaves office, though, we should prioritize the clemency petition and that once we filed that we could turn our attention to the compassionate-release motion. But now we don’t have to do the compassionate-release part of it. So, it worked out pretty well.”
Lessnick recalled that he was in court, in the middle of a trial, when he got the news about Biden’s action. “I could hardly wait to call April and hear her reaction to the news that her sentence had been commuted,” he said.
When Rice arose from bed that day, her aunt already knew but kept the news as a surprise. “She’s like, ‘I need you to sit on the couch and watch the bottom of the screen,’” Rice recalled. “So I’m watching and on the bottom it scrolls that Biden pardoned thirty-nine and granted clemency to 1,500. And I automatically knew because Jaden let me know there were 1,500 of us left, and that it was going to affect me. So I started crying and praising God. It’s been an emotional week for sure.”
Putting Practice to Work
For Lessnick, preparing Rice’s case was an opportunity to utilize some of the skills he learned working with Zunkel in the FCJC on compassionate-release motions. Learning the “hard skills,” like writing effective advocacy and making strategic decisions, was one thing. But equally important, he said, were the soft skills, like the need to balance building trust with a client while simultaneously not overpromising with respect to a particular outcome, “because these cases are so hard to win.”
Lessnick said that when he graduated from the Law School, Clinical Professor Alison Siegler, who directs the FCJC, gave him some useful advice on fighting injustice: “Just because things have been going this way for however long doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be outraged.”
“I felt very much that way about this case,” he said. “Look, April was out on home confinement, a number of people in her position had been out on home confinement, and we’d just sort of gotten used to the fact that that’s how it was going to be. There would be no relief at the end of the tunnel; the President wasn’t going to grant clemency. So, that struck a chord with me—to feel there really is something we can do here. Just because business as usual has not been especially helpful for these people doesn’t mean we can’t change the way business as usual gets done.”
Rice, meanwhile, has a new future. She’s been employed as a shipping and receiving associate for two years, loves her work, and has also become a certified peer support counselor, working with women in prison. She has two daughters who are living with their father, Rice’s former husband. He has remarried, and Rice says it is a happy home for her girls and hopes to reconnect with them. The commutation gives her that opportunity.
She also has fond memories of her experience working with Lessnick.
“I had a Zoom meeting with him when we found out that I was going to be getting clemency and he was like, ‘Man I was really looking forward to arguing your case in court,’” Rice said. “And I’m like, ‘I get it.’”
Original source can be found here.