Akin Gump Client Serving Life Sentence for Nonviolent Drug Offense Granted Clemency

(Washington, D.C.) – President Donald Trump announced yesterday that he has granted clemency to Curtis McDonald, a 70-year-old who had been serving his 23rd year of a life-without-parole sentence in federal prison for a nonviolent drug offense.

A team from Akin Gump represented Mr. McDonald pro bono in his petition for compassionate release, alongside Nathan Bicks and Sarah Stuart of Burch, Porter & Johnson, PLLC. Brittany K. Barnett, co-founder of the Buried Alive project, represented Mr. McDonald in his clemency petition. The Buried Alive Project is a national nonprofit group that seeks to end life-without-parole sentencing handed down under federal drug laws.

Mr. McDonald was a co-defendant of Alice Johnson, who had been serving life without parole for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense until the President commuted her sentence in June 2018. Mr. McDonald’s sentence was handed down under mandatory federal sentencing guidelines in 1996. He was denied compassionate release earlier this year by a federal district court in Memphis, Tennessee. The day his request was denied, he learned he had contracted COVID-19, from which he has subsequently recovered.

“We are grateful the President has granted clemency to our client, Curtis McDonald,” stated Akin Gump partner Bob Lian, who led the team representing Mr. McDonald in compassionate release proceedings. “Mr. McDonald’s sentence was grossly disproportionate to the crime for which he was convicted.  Mr. McDonald was a model inmate, providing guidance and mentorship to other inmates. The President’s grant of clemency provides Mr. McDonald with an opportunity to contribute positively to society during his remaining years. We were honored to partner with Brittany Barnett from the Buried Alive Project and with Nathan Bicks and Sarah Stuart, as well as with Alice Johnson and our former Akin Gump colleague and former Koch Industries general counsel Mark Holden, who led, and were instrumental in, the clemency effort on behalf of Mr. McDonald.”

In addition to Mr. Lian, the Akin Gump team representing Mr. McDonald included counsel Abigail Kohlman, associates Elise Bernlohr Maizel and Margo Rusconi, and senior practice attorney Christine Doniak.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP is a leading international law firm with more than 900 lawyers and advisors in offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Founded in 1945, the firm is proudly celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2020. #AkinGump75

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