Last week in United States v. Hemani, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government may not strip people of their Second Amendment rights or prosecute them for illegal gun possession simply because they are marijuana users. That decision was good news for Alexander Ledvina, an Iowa cannabis consumer who received a four-year prison sentence because he owned guns.
Ledvina, who was 26 when he was arrested in June 2023, has been incarcerated since then. In a recent letter from the federal prison in Memphis, which he wrote on the same day that the Supreme Court decided Hemani but before he knew the outcome, Ledvina reports that he is scheduled to be released on July 15, six days before his 30th birthday, thanks to the expanded "good conduct" and "earned" time credits authorized by the FIRST STEP Act of 2018. Hemani therefore won't figure in Ledvina's time behind bars. But it improves his chances of overturning his conviction, which could restore his Second Amendment rights and remove the other lifelong burdens associated with a felony record.
