Carter Ledyard Secures Compassionate Release in Important Case

Carter Ledyard client Rita Gluzman, a 71-year-old federal inmate, successfully petitioned the Southern District of New York for compassionate release after spending nearly a quarter century in federal custody. In 1997, a jury convicted Ms. Gluzman of violating the Violence Against Women Act for conspiracy to commit, and the actual commission of, the interstate domestic violence murder of her husband, Yakov Gluzman. Judge Barrington D. Parker, then of the Southern District of New York, sentenced Ms. Gluzman to life in prison under the then mandatory sentencing guidelines. In granting Ms. Gluzman’s motion for compassionate release, Judge Liman of the Southern District of New York found that Ms. Gluzman’s medical condition, age, and other circumstances—specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic and Ms. Gluzman’s exemplary conduct while incarcerated—weighed in favor of a sentence modification.

Ms. Gluzman was represented by Alan S. Lewis, partner and co-chair of the firm’s Internal Investigations and White Collar Defense practice, with assistance from Sarah H. Ganley, an associate in Carter Ledyard’s Litigation and Disputes practice.