| Johansi Lopez Avoids Federal
Lockup As SDNY Judge Rakoff Cites Coronavirus
and Compassion
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
March 23 -- Johansi
Lopez faces a five year
mandatory minimum sentence
when he is sentenced on
charges involving robbing drug
dealers.
His sentencing is
scheduled for June 11 before
U.S. District Court for the
Southern District of New York
Judge Jed S. Rakoff. But on
March 23 the argument before
Judge Rakoff was whether to
send him to prison until then.
Federal Defender Christopher
Flood emphasized the mounting
threat of Coronavirus COVID-19
in the Federal jails.
Assistant US Attorney Dominic
Gentile countered that so far
only three federal prisoners,
out of 175,400, have tested
positive.
Judge Rakoff said outside the
walls, 400 are already dead.
He opined that Lopez deserves
time with his family, his wife
and young daughter, before
going away for five years,
saying that separating
families is not the kind of
law he wants to be part of
imposing.
He ruled that
Lopez is not a flight risk,
and freed him to home
incarceration, while declining
Floods' request that Lopez be
allowed offer training while
under home incarceration. The
case is US v. Lopez, 19-cr-323
(Rakoff).
***
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