[ DO NOT PUBLISH] 

## In the 

# United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________
No. 21

- 11145
Non

- Argument Calendar

____________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff

- Appellee,

versus DANIEL WHITE,

Defendant

- Appellant.

____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 8:12

- cr

- 00173

- SDM

- AAS

- 1

____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-11145 Date Filed: 08/26/2022 Page: 1 of 62 Opinion of the Court 21

- 11145

Before J ORDAN , N EWSOM , and L UCK , Circuit Judges.

P ER C URIAM : Daniel White appeals the district court’s orders denying his motion for compassionate release and reconsideration. We affirm. Since 2016, White has been serving an eighty

- four month prison sentence for making false claims to the Internal Revenue Service and aggravated identity theft

. Last year, under 18 U.S.C. section 3582(c)(1)(A), he moved for compassionate release because he was “in great risk of contracting C ovid

- 19” and he suffer ed from

“ a varicose vein i n [ his ] lower right leg .” The government opposed the motion because : (1) White already had contracted C ovid

- 19 and he “ received appropriate medical care”; (2) during White’s bout with Covid

- 19, his “body temperature and oxygen levels were completely normal” ; ( 3 ) “[t]he mere existence of the C ovid

- 19 pandemic

— which pose [d] a general threat to ever y non

- immune person in the country ”

— was not an

e xtraordinary and compelling reason under guideline section 1B1.13 for granting compassionate releas e ; and ( 4 ) White’s varicosevein “f[e]ll short of an ‘extraordinary and compelling reason’ to justify compassionate relea se.” T he district court denied White’s compassionate rel ease motion for the “reasons sufficiently explained in” the government’s “ resp onse. ”
White moved for reconsideration because there was a new Covid

- 19 outbreak in his housing unit and his varicose vein could USCA11 Case: 21-11145 Date Filed: 08/26/2022 Page: 2 of 621

- 11145 Opinion of the Court 3

“ affect blood that flows to [the] hear t and can cause blood clots, which can become deadly.” The district court denied White’s reconsideration motion because “his varicose veins and his fear of again contracting Covid

- 19 [did] not present an ‘extraordinary and compelling’ reason justifying his release.”
We review the district court’s orders denying compassionate release for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Harris , 989 F.3d 908, 911 (11th Cir. 2021)

. “[D] istrict court [s] ha [ve] no inherent authority to modify a sentence; [they] may d o so only when authorized by a statute or rule. ” United States v. Puentes , 803 F.3d 597, 606 (11th Cir. 2015)

. White moved for compassionate release under section 3582( c)(1)(A) , w hich provides that: [T]he court, upon motion of

. . . the defendant

. . . m ay reduce the term of imprisonment

. . . , after considering the factors set forth in section 3553(a) to the extent that they are applicable, if it finds that

. . . extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant such a reduction

. . . and that such a reduction is consistentwith applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission. 18 U.S.C. § 358 2 (c)(1)(A).
Under section 3582(c)(1)(A), “ a district court may reduce a term of imprisonment if (1) the [section] 3553(a) sentencing factors fav or doing so, (2) there are ‘extraordinary and compelling reasons’ for doing so, and[] .

. . (3) doing so wouldn’t endanger any person USCA11 Case: 21-11145 Date Filed: 08/26/2022 Page: 3 of 64 Opinion of the Court 21

- 11145 or the community within the meaning of [guideline section] 1B1.13’s policy statement. ” United States v. Tinker , 14 F.4th 1234, 1235 (11th Cir. 2021) (discussing 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) ). “ Because all three conditions

— i.e. , support in the [section] 3553(a) factors, extraordinary and compelling reasons, and adherence to [section] 1B1.13’s policy statement

— are necessary, the absence of even one would foreclose a sentence reduction. ” Id. at 1237

– 38

. White argues that the district court abused its discretion in denying his compassionate release motion because the threat of Covid

- 19, mixed with his varicose veins and prison conditions
, were extraordinary and compelling reasons justifying his release.The district court, White contends, should have relied on the Center s for Disease Control and Prevention ’s guidelines and the Department of Justice’s internal guidance ra ther than on guideline section 1B1.13

. But the district court had to rely on guideline section 1B1.13 because we’ve said so

. “Section 1B1.13’s policy statement is applicable to all motions under [section] 3582(c)(1)(A), and, accordingly, district courts may not reduce a sentence under Section 3582(c)(1)(A) unless a reduction would be consistent with [guideline section] 1B1.13. ” Id. at 1237 (quotation omitted). Here, compassionate release would not be consistent with guideline section 1B1.13.
Section 1B 1.13 provides that, in some limited circumstances, the defendant’s medical condition may be an extraordinary and compelling reason for compassionate release. T he defendant has USCA11 Case: 21-11145 Date Filed: 08/26/2022 Page: 4 of 621

- 11145 Opinion of the Court 5

to show either that he is : (1) “suffering from a terminal illness” ; or (2) “su ffering from a serious physical or medical condition,” “a serious functional or cognitive impairment,” or he’s “experiencing deter iorati ng physical or mental health because of the aging process,” and the condition, impairment, or deterio ration “substantially di minishes ” his “ ability ” to “p rovide self

- care” in prison and he “is not expected to recover.” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13 cmt. n.1(A)

. White failed to show that Covid

- 19 and h is varicose vein s substantially diminished his ability to provide self

- c are in prison. He admitted that he did not “require assistance with self

- care[,] such as bathing, walking, [and] toileting
, ” and that his medical condition required only that he take acetaminophen and omeprazole and wear an anti

- embolism stocking. And t h e warden confirmed that White was being treated in prison and that his medical provider “diagnosed [ him ] with varicose veins ,” “ prescribed [ him ] acetaminophen for pain relief
, ” and did not recommend surgery.

Even if we relied on the CDC guidelines, as White argues we should, t he CDC does not list varicose veins as one of the medical conditions that is more likely to cause a person to get very sick with Covi d

- 19. 1 Cf. Harris , 989 F.3d at 912 ( no abuse of discretion in denying com passionate release where defendant’s hypertension

1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Covid

- 19, People with Certain Medical Conditions, at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019

- ncov/need

extra

- precautions/people

- with

- medical

- conditions.html#print (last visited August 17, 2022). USCA11 Case: 21-11145 Date Filed: 08/26/2022 Page: 5 of 66 Opinion of the Court 21

- 11145

was a condition that “might” pose an increased risk due to C ovid

19 per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ). This is consistent with White’s experience. He already contracted C ovid

19 and he h ad only mild symptoms , even with his varicose veins

. Because White did not show that his medical condition was

an extraordinary and compelling reason for compassionate release under guideline section 1B1.13, the district court did not abuse its discretion i n denying White’s motions.
AFFIRMED. USCA11 Case: 21-11145 Date Filed: 08/26/2022 Page: 6 of 6