Judge rules inmate safer from COVID-19 in NJ prison than in South Carolina

Saying South Carolina is now highly dangerous for people susceptible to the ravages of COVID-19, a federal judge has turned down a request by a New Jersey inmate for compassionate release to his Colleton County home.

“Three months ago, the notion that a person would be at greater risk for exposure to COVID-19 in South Carolina than in a prison in New Jersey was preposterous,” wrote U.S. District Judge David Norton, who is based in Charleston.

“Yet, here we are,” wrote Norton in his July 17 order refusing to transfer inmate Pierre Morgan from a New Jersey prison to his home in South Carolina to serve out the remaining months of a four-year sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He is now scheduled to be released to a halfway house in September and is eligible to be released to home detention in October. His scheduled release date is March of next year.

Norton’s rejection was a rare refusal to grant an otherwise qualified federal prison inmate compassionate release. Since March, in response to an order by Attorney General William Barr ordering the Bureau of Prisons to release inmates at risk of dying from coronavirus, more than 7,000 inmates have been released, according to the Bureau of Prisons website.

Morgan, 30, who is six feet tall and weighs 315 pounds, suffers from numerous ailments that make him susceptible to dying if he gets coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and undisputed evidence in the inmate’s case. Morgan’s ailments include obesity, hypertension and clogged arteries.

In his petition, Morgan said he has turned his life around, is not a danger to the community and is due to be released to a half-way house in September. He said he “tries to devote all of his time to obtaining his GED, programming and his religious studies.”

Morgan’s attorney, assistant federal public defender Ann Briks Walsh, said, “I appreciate very much that Judge Norton wants to keep my client safe, and so do I.”

Walsh continued, “I hope to be able to propose to Judge Norton a place and a means where Mr. Morgan can be released where he can be safe from the coronavirus, or at least safer than he is in New Jersey. When I’m able to fashion such a situation for Mr. Morgan, I will re-apply on his behalf to Judge Norton.”

Walsh also said that although she was surprised at Judge Norton’s finding, she is aware of the high rates of coronavirus in South Carolina and how easy it is to become infected. “I live in Charleston and have to acknowledge the situation is not good.”

In his order, the judge acknowledged Morgan — a model inmate who is at Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution — is a worthy candidate for a federal program called compassionate release to his home.

But then the judge turned to science and statistics to explain the relative dangers New Jersey and South Carolina pose to Morgan from coronavirus.

In the time between June 1 and July 15, New Jersey’s seven-day average of coronavirus cases has dropped from 832 to 304 daily cases, Norton noted.

During the same time frame, Colleton County — where Morgan wants to go — has seen a 361% hike in coronavirus cases, Norton wrote.

“And the state of South Carolina’s seven-day average has risen from 281 cases to 1,826 daily cases,” Norton wrote.

Colleton County had 130 cases on June 1, increasing by slightly more than three times to 532 on July 15, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. As of July 23, the county has 640 confirmed COVID-19 cases.

On Friday, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported that South Carolina’s latest daily case count was 1,921, which is below the daily high for the state of 2,336 new cases reported for Saturday.

The judge also noted that Morgan’s Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution has approximately 4,000 inmates, only five of whom have coronavirus. Only one staff member there has the disease, the judge wrote.

“The differences (between South Carolina and New Jersey) ... lead the court to draw only one conclusion — it would not be prudent at this juncture for the court to release defendant to a location where the daily cases of COVID-19 are insidiously mounting when his current prison setting has very few active cases,” the judge wrote.

Federal compassionate release laws and policy give power to U. S. District judges around the country to reduce a defendant’s sentence whenever “extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction.”

Norton is a 30-year veteran federal judge who has over the years been involved in high profile cases. He is known for having a quick mind and no-nonsense demeanor. In 2014, he oversaw the public corruption jury trial of Greenville businessman and former S.C. State University trustee chairman Jonathan Pinson, who was found guilty of various frauds.

In 2017, Norton also oversaw a non-jury proceeding involving the criminal case of Michael Slager, a North Charleston police officer, who shot and killed an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, who was running away from Slager. Norton sentenced Slager to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder.

This story was originally published July 26, 2020 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Judge rules inmate safer from COVID-19 in NJ prison than in South Carolina."