Successful compassionate-release petitions are exceedingly rare and excruciatingly slow

He stole a $1 lemonade, smoked pot – then nearly had to die in prison

Twenty-four hours a day for 10 weeks, inmates in maroon uniforms with “D.O.C.” stamped on the backs held a death vigil over Frank Rodriguez. His colon cancer was terminal, but he refused to die – not behind the barbed wire and bars of Graterford Prison.