caption

A pro bono team from O'Melveny & Myers helped secure the release of a man who was sentenced to almost 22 years in prison for intent to sell 15 grams of crack cocaine.

Designated a “career offender” under then-mandatory sentencing guidelines, Stoney Lester has spent 14 years behind bars.

As a career offender, Lester was subject to a sentencing enhancement. But since then, the law has changed both at the U.S. Supreme Court level and in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

As a result, Lester argued that he was misclassified and erroneously sentenced, and that he shouldn't have had to serve more than about 12 years.

He filed a pro se habeas petition seeking relief, which was denied by the district court judge. The Fourth Circuit appointed O'Melveny to represent him on appeal.

According to the firm, the O'Melveny team—partner Jonathan Hacker, counsel Brad Garcia, and associates Brian Quinn and Jessica Waddle—argued that the so-called “savings clause” in the federal habeas statute permitted Lester to challenge his sentence in the exceptional circumstances of his case.

Garcia handled the winning argument before the unanimous panel.

“Lester's 262-month sentence, then, is more than nine years longer than the maximum sentence that the court rightfully had discretion to order,” the panel found. “[W]e conclude that the sentencing error in Lester's case is 'sufficiently grave to be deemed a fundamental defect.'”