Brandon Sample is the attorney at Criminal Center, a federal criminal defense firm in Washington, DC. He helps people and their families through federal charges, sentencing and prison. He handles federal cases only.
Who is Brandon Sample?
Brandon Sample is a federal criminal defense lawyer at Criminal Center, an author, and a criminal justice reform advocate.
Brandon Sample is licensed in Vermont and practices federal criminal law nationwide, with years of hands-on experience in federal courts.
What does he handle at Criminal Center?
Federal criminal defense, sentencing, appeals, and help after the sentence. That includes compassionate release, presidential pardons and commutations, and 2255 motions (asking the judge who sentenced you to throw out or fix the sentence). He doesn’t handle state cases.
Federal criminal cases
He handles federal criminal cases from the investigation through trial, sentencing, appeal, and life in federal prison. That includes:
- Pre-trial and trial
- Sentencing (giving the judge reasons for a lower sentence)
- Federal appeals
- Motions under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 and petitions under 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (challenges to a conviction or sentence after it is final)
- Sentence reduction motions under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2)
- Treaty transfer requests (asking to serve a sentence in your home country)
- Cooperation assistance
- Compassionate release motions
- Federal pardon and commutation petitions
- Requests to change supervised release conditions or end supervised release early
Federal civil cases
- Prisoner civil rights
- Wrongful death
- Inmate abuse and neglect claims
- Federal Tort Claims Act
- Religious Freedom Restoration Act
- Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act
- Freedom of Information Act
- Administrative Procedure Act
- Inmate accident compensation claims
Education
- Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, Vermont Law School
- B.A., Interdisciplinary Studies, summa cum laude, Adams State University
Which courts is he admitted to practice in?
Brandon Sample is admitted to practice law only in Vermont. Practice is limited to federal courts and federal agencies.
He is admitted to practice before these courts:
U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts of appeals
- Supreme Court of the United States
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Federal district courts
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas
- U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York
- U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
State courts
- Supreme Court of Vermont
He has also handled federal cases in courts across the country.
Professional associations
- American Bar Association
- National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
- Federal Bar Association
- Vermont Trial Lawyers Association
What books has he written?
He is the author of The Habeas Citebook: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel, first published in 2010. A second edition, co-authored with Alissa Hull, Esq., was published in 2016 by Prison Legal News. The book covers ineffective assistance of counsel: a claim that a defense lawyer’s mistakes hurt the case.
He is a co-author of Pardons and Commutations of Sentences: The Complete Guidebook to Applying for Clemency, with David L. Mathis, published by Prisology Press in 2019.
Book details on brandonsample.com →
What else has he written?
He has written articles for Prison Legal News and the Huffington Post, and a column for Criminal Legal News.
Criminal Legal News
Q&A: Ineffective Assistance of Counsel: Which Errors Are Worth Pursuing?Criminal Legal News
Guilty Plea Does Not Foreclose Challenge To Constitutionality Of Conviction, U.S. Supreme Court DecidesCriminal Legal News
U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Habeas Relief Citing AEDPA DeferencePrison Legal News
Articles by Brandon Sample (2013–2016)
What is Prisology?
In 2013, Brandon formed Prisology, a national tax-exempt nonprofit that works on criminal justice reform.
On June 10, 2014, he testified before the U.S. Sentencing Commission for Prisology. He asked the Commission to make the “drugs minus two” change (Amendment 782, which lowered guideline ranges for many drug offenses) apply to people already in prison. The Commission later made it retroactive through Amendment 788, effective November 1, 2014.
In the news
Brandon Sample has been named in national news coverage of these matters:
- Bernard Madoff: compassionate release
- Ross Ulbricht: prison lawsuit and pardon coverage
- Joe Exotic: pardon request and appeal
Advertising material. Outcomes vary. A past result does not predict or guarantee the outcome of any other case.
Where is the office?
Criminal Center, 1701 Pennsylvania Ave NW # 200, Washington, DC 20006