U.S. Supreme Court: EARLY RELEASE.

Lopez v. Davis 121 S.Ct. 714(2001). A federal prisoner convicted of possession with the intent to distribute methamphetamine petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus challenging a federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) regulation. The regulation categorically denied early release to prisoners, based on completion of a drug treatment program, if a prisoner's current offense was a felony attended by the carrying, possession or use of a firearm. The district court granted the petition and the appeals court reversed. The United States Supreme Court held that the BOP had the discretion, under the governing federal statute, to promulgate a regulation that categorically denies early release to prisoners whose felonies involved the use of a firearm. The court noted that the statute provided that the BOP "may" reduce the sentence of a nonviolent offender who has successfully completed a drug treatment program, and the statute did not limit the considerations the BOP could use to guide its decisions, and the BOP was not require d to make only individualized determinations or to consider only postconviction conduct. (Federal Bureau of Prisons)