[DO NOT PUBLISH]

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 22-10638

Non-Argument Calendar

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

MARK ANTHONY BECKFORD,

Defendant-Appellant.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of Georgia

USCA11 Case: 22-10638 Date Filed: 09/22/2022 Page: 1 of 8
2 Opinion of the Court 22-10638

D.C. Docket No. 1:09-cr-00263-TWT-JKL-1

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Before ROSENBAUM, GRANT, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: 

Mark Beckford, a federal prisoner proceeding pro se, appeals the district court’s denial of his motion for compassionate 

release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). In his opening brief, 

Beckford identifies one issue on appeal—whether the district 

court abused its discretion in denying his compassionate release 

motion—but he makes two arguments to that effect. First, he argues that the district court arrived at incorrect factual conclusions 

because vaccines are no longer effective and because the Bureau 

of Prison’s (“BOP”) response to COVID-19 has been inadequate. 

Second, he argues that the district court’s legal analysis was 

flawed because it improperly considered his codefendant’s sentence and the fact that his original sentence was reduced due to a 

post-trial plea agreement with the Government. Beckford has also filed a motion requesting oral argument and the appointment 

of counsel to argue on his behalf. 

The Government, in lieu of a response brief, has filed a 

motion for summary affirmance.1 The Government argues that 

1 In this motion, the Government also requests that this Court stay the briefing schedule or treat this motion as a responsive brief. For the reasons outUSCA11 Case: 22-10638 Date Filed: 09/22/2022 Page: 2 of 8
22-10638 Opinion of the Court 3

no substantial question for review exists in this appeal because, 

inter alia, Beckford failed to show that he has satisfied the legal 

requirements for compassionate release. Because we agree with 

the Government that existing Eleventh Circuit caselaw plainly 

forecloses Beckford’s arguments on appeal, we GRANT the Government’s motion for summary affirmance. See Groendyke 

Transp., Inc. v. Davis, 406 F.2d 1158, 1162 (5th Cir. 1969) (stating 

that “summary disposition is necessary and proper” in cases 

where “the position of one of the parties is clearly right as a matter of law so that there can be no substantial question as to the 

outcome of the case”). Because we write only for the parties, we 

will not recite the facts underlying this appeal in a separate section 

of the opinion. 

I. 

We review a district court’s denial of a prisoner’s 

§ 3582(c)(1)(A) motion for abuse of discretion. United States v. 

Harris, 989 F.3d 908, 911 (11th Cir. 2021). This standard of review 

“is not simply a rubber stamp.” United States v. Johnson, 877 

F.3d 993, 997 (11th Cir. 2017) (quoting United States v. Docampo, 

573 F.3d 1091, 1104 (11th Cir. 2009) (Barkett, J., concurring in part 

and dissenting in part)). “A court must explain its sentencing decisions adequately enough to allow for meaningful appellate review.” Id. This standard of review, though, does afford district 

lined in the body of this opinion, we DENY the Government’s request to 

stay the briefing schedule as moot. 

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courts a “range of choice,” and we “cannot reverse just because 

we might have come to a different conclusion.” Harris, 989 F.3d 

at 912 (quoting Sloss Indus. Corp. v. Eurisol, 488 F.3d 922, 934 

(11th Cir. 2007)). A district court abuses its discretion if it applies 

an incorrect legal standard, follows improper procedures in making its determination, or makes clearly erroneous factual findings. 

Id. at 911. 

A district court may not grant compassionate release unless 

it makes three findings: (1) “that an extraordinary and compelling 

reason exists,” (2) “that a sentencing reduction would be consistent with U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13,” and (3) that the “§ 3553(a) factors 

weigh in favor of compassionate release.” United States v. Giron, 

15 F.4th 1343, 1347 (11th Cir. 2021). “The plain language of the 

statute means that compassionate release is permissible only if all 

three findings are made . . . . If any one of the necessary findings 

cannot be made, then compassionate release is not permissible.” 

Id. at 1348 (citation omitted). Here, the district court denied 

Beckford’s motion for compassionate release for two, independent reasons. First, Beckford failed to show that extraordinary and 

compelling reasons exist. Second, the § 3553(a) factors weighed 

against granting compassionate release. Because we may affirm 

the district court’s denial of compassionate release on either basis, 

and because we agree with the district court that Beckford has not 

shown that an extraordinary and compelling reason exists for his 

compassionate release, we will address only that issue on appeal. 

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II. 

In its order denying Beckford’s motion for compassionate 

release, the district court concluded that he “failed to meet his 

burden to show . . . ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ particular to him since he has received both doses of Moderna’s 

COVID-19 vaccine.” It further noted that “numerous courts 

around the country have repeatedly denied compassionate release 

where an inmate has been vaccinated.” On appeal, Beckford argues that the court’s reasoning is flawed because even vaccinated 

persons may be vulnerable to new variants of COVID-19 and because the BOP’s response to COVID-19 has been inadequate.2 

Even assuming arguendo that Beckford is correct, he still has not 

shown (or even argued) that the COVID-19 pandemic, in combination with his preexisting medical conditions, constitutes an “extraordinary and compelling reason” for compassionate release. 

This Court “recently held that [U.S.S.G. §] 1B1.13 constrains district courts’ authority to identify when extraordinary 

and compelling reasons exist.” Giron, 15 F.4th at 1346 (citing 

2 Beckford also asserts, in passing, that the BOP’s failure to adequately protect him from COVID-19 is an Eighth Amendment violation. Because he has 

devoted only a couple of sentences to this argument, we deem it inadequately argued and therefore abandoned. See United States v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 

1273, 1283 n.8 (11th Cir. 2003) (“[A] party seeking to raise a claim or issue on 

appeal must plainly and prominently so indicate . . . . At the very least, he 

must devote a discrete, substantial portion of his argumentation to that issue. 

Otherwise, the issue . . . will be considered abandoned.”).

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United States v. Bryant, 996 F.3d 1243, 1262 (11th Cir. 2021)). 

“The application notes for Section 1B1.13 identify four general 

categories of ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’: medical, 

age, family, and a ‘catch-all “other reasons” category.’” Id. (quoting Bryant, 996 F.3d at 1249–50). “[T]he only medical conditions 

that rise to the level of extraordinary and compelling are as follows: if the medical condition (i) is a terminal illness or 

(ii) ‘substantially diminishes the ability of the defendant to provide 

self-care within’ prison.” Id. (quoting U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13 cmt. 

n.1(A)). 

On appeal, Beckford highlights his many medical conditions, including diabetes, glaucoma, and hypertension. But he 

neither argues that these ailments are terminal nor that COVID19 “substantially diminishes” his ability to manage them in prison. 

In fact, he notes that he receives “numerous medications” to 

manage his medical conditions and that he “is on the [prison’s] 

chronic care list for his hypertension and type 2 diabetes.” Accordingly, Beckford has not shown that an “extraordinary and 

compelling reason” justifies compassionate release under Section 

1B1.13’s definition. 

Moreover, he cannot argue that an “extraordinary and 

compelling reason” exists under the “other reasons” category because, as we held in Bryant, district courts may not “find[] extraordinary and compelling reasons within the catch-all provision 

beyond those specified by the Sentencing Commission in Section 

1B1.13.” Giron, 15 F.4th at 1347. Beckford seemingly acknowlUSCA11 Case: 22-10638 Date Filed: 09/22/2022 Page: 6 of 8
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edges this in his response to the Government’s motion for summary affirmance, but he argues instead that the Supreme Court’s 

recent decision in Concepcion v. United States, 142 S. Ct. 2389 

(2022), abrogates this Court’s holding in Bryant. He points to 

several lines in the Supreme Court’s decision that emphasize the 

discretion district courts have when sentencing defendants. See

Concepcion, 142 S. Ct. at 2399 (“Federal courts historically have 

exercised this broad discretion to consider all relevant information 

at an initial sentencing hearing, consistent with their responsibility to sentence the whole person before them. . . . Such discretion 

is bounded only when Congress or the Constitution expressly limits the type of information a district court may consider in modifying a sentence.”). 

Yet, as Beckford notes, Concepcion’s holding does not address compassionate release motions. Instead, Concepcion held 

that district courts, when adjudicating a motion under the First 

Step Act, “may consider other intervening changes of law (such as 

changes to the Sentencing Guidelines) or changes of fact (such as 

behavior in prison).” Id. at 2396. Importantly, the Concepcion

opinion states that Congress may cabin what district courts may 

consider when sentencing (or resentencing) a defendant, and it 

expressly cited the compassionate release statute as an example: 

“For [§ 3582(c)] proceedings, Congress expressly cabined district 

courts’ discretion by requiring courts to abide by the Sentencing 

Commission’s policy statements.” Id. at 2401. This statement is 

consistent with Bryant, which merely held that Section 1B1.13 is 

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an applicable policy statement. 996 F.3d at 1262. Accordingly, we 

cannot conclude that Concepcion abrogates this Court’s prior 

holding in Bryant. See United States v. Kaley, 579 F.3d 1246, 1255 

(11th Cir. 2009) (“[T]he doctrine of adherence to prior precedent . . . mandates that the intervening Supreme Court case actually abrogate or directly conflict with, as opposed to merely 

weaken, the holding of the prior panel.”); cf. also United States v. 

King, 40 F.4th 594, 596 (7th Cir. 2022) (“We take the Supreme 

Court at its word that Concepcion is about the matters that district judges may consider when they resentence defendants. So 

understood, Concepcion is irrelevant to the threshold question 

whether any given prisoner has established an ‘extraordinary and 

compelling’ reason for release.”). 

Because Beckford has not shown that an “extraordinary 

and compelling reason”—as defined by Section 1B1.13—justifies 

compassionate release, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion. Accordingly, the district court’s denial of his motion for compassionate release and the Government’s 

motion for summary affirmance are 

AFFIRMED.3 

3 Because this case does not require oral argument to resolve, we DENY

Beckford’s motion for oral argument and request for the appointment of 

counsel. 

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