The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit split on reasonable articulation as procedural error by a trial judge ruling motions in cases where he or she was not the sentencing judge.

The majority opinion affirmed U.S. District Judge David Counts’ denial of the compassionate release request of a convicted drug dealer serving a 23-year sentence. Risk of a second COVID-19 infection for an inmate who had already suffered infection was one of four substantive issues raised.