The D.C. Council tabled a planned vote Tuesday to add a convicted murderer to the D.C. Sentencing Commission after concerns about the nomination were raised by the city’s top federal prosecutor.
Chairman Phil Mendelson said he wanted the “temperature to come down” before the council would consider approving paroled killer Joel Castón to join the 17-person board that sets guidelines for prison sentences in the District’s judicial system.
U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves, the federal prosecutor whose office handles most serious crimes in the District, came out vehemently last week against the nomination in a letter, saying the Sentencing Commission already provides guidelines that are too lenient on violent offenders.
The prosecutor’s letter was published just days after the city concluded its bloodiest year in over a quarter century, with the District beset by a surge in robberies, a record number of carjackings and 274 homicides — the most since 1997.
But progressive councilmembers who backed Castón’s nomination were skeptical that delaying the vote would do anything to fend off critics.
“I don’t think the temperature goes down in two weeks,” Charles Allen, Ward 6 Democrat, said during the discussion.
Mr. Allen, who mentioned he’s known Castón for years, described the scrutiny of the formerly imprisoned killer as a “character assassination.”
Both Mr. Allen and at-large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said Castón’s experience being behind bars — and also undergoing a dramatic rehabilitation — was a value-add to the commission.
But Brooke Pinto, who has a seat on the Sentencing Commission because she heads up the council’s public safety committee, agreed with Mr. Mendelson that the vote should be delayed.
She also said she doubted that Castón has enough knowledge about sentencing guidelines to make him an effective member of the panel.
Ward 3 Democrat Matt Frumin agreed that there should be a delay, while Ward 8 Democrat Trayon White wanted to push ahead with the vote, even if some people found it controversial to add a known murderer to a city commission.
Castón, 46, was convicted for gunning down 18-year-old Rafiq Washington in Southeast in 1994. The shooter, who was 18 himself at the time, was sentenced to 35 years to life behind bars, but was paroled in 2021 after 26 years.
While incarcerated, Castón became a model prisoner. He started a newspaper, created a program to mentor young men and won an election to serve as an advisory neighborhood commissioner — the first D.C. resident to be elected to office while behind bars.
“I don’t think like that 18-year-old guy that once had a mindset that I completely reject. I have changed,” Castón says in a biography on the website of The Sentencing Project, a D.C.-based foundation that lobbies for eliminating racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
“I have a proven track record of rehabilitation and demonstrated remorse,” he continued. “Individuals like myself, they deserve an opportunity to present a colorful argument of why they deserve their freedom.”
Mr. Graves, the U.S. attorney, commended Castón’s “transformation” in his Jan. 2 letter to the D.C. Council. However, the federal prosecutor said that being on the wrong side of a prison cell doesn’t make Castón an expert on sentencing policy.
Mr. Graves also said that, if approved by the council, Castón would become the second person affiliated with the Sentencing Project to serve on the commission. The Sentencing Project contacted The Washington Times after publication and said Castón is not a paid staff member, but is one of many ex-convicts the nonprofit features on its site who have successfully acclimated to post-prison life.
He criticized the organization for focusing on “decarceration,” while members of the District’s Metropolitan Police have no voting power on the panel despite having regular interactions with the city’s criminal element (there is a nonvoting MPD member on the Sentencing Commission).
The result, according to the federal prosecutor, has been a set of sentencing guidelines that have created a “revolving door for those arrested and prosecuted in this jurisdiction.”
Mr. Graves said D.C. Superior Court judges followed the guidelines when handing out probationary sentences and short-split sentences — which typically involve a few days in jail followed by a probationary release — for roughly half of all convicted felons in 2022. He said those felons effectively served little or no jail time because of the commission’s work.
“There very well may be jurisdictions whose current sentencing practices are leading to sentences that are greater than what is necessary to achieve the purposes of sentencing,” Mr. Graves wrote. “The data makes clear that the District of Columbia is not such a jurisdiction.”
Mr. Mendelson, the council chair, said Monday that the Sentencing Commission asked local lawmakers to select a former convict to serve on the panel.
Mayor Muriel Bowser nominated ANC Commissioner Sean Holihan to sit on the panel. Mr. Holihan is an anti-gun activist who works for former Congressman Gabby Giffords’ organization, Giffords.
Clarification: This story has been updated with the Sentencing Project’s explanation of its connection to Joel Castón.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.