rival gang member. Askia was never implicated in the killing, and he argued in an appeal that he was unfairly tried together with the drug co-conspirators who were charged in the death.

On Nov. 6, after serving 10 years of a 20-year sentence, Askia logged on to the social networking site and updated his current location: Baltimore.

He added "Baltimore Ravens" to his favorite teams, and "liked" the music of Lauryn Hill. He picked his favorite movies: "Set it Off," "The Usual Suspects," and "Friday" — all of which came out in the late 1990s, before he was incarcerated.

Askia, now 37, declined to be interviewed. According to court documents, he says he worked in prison to better himself. In a petition to the judge in his case, he said hecompleted a 15-credit course in business management from Kent State University, as well as real estate courses and an apprenticeship in data entry.

"Throughout the course of his incarceration, petitioner has not only grew in age, but he's grown in maturity and decision making," Askia personally wrote in a legal brief he filed in the case.

Dent, who is 38, also attached paperwork in a separate court filing showing that he had earned a GED and taken college-level accounting, business law and English classes. Of his 12 co-defendants who were convicted, at least eight others have applied for reductions under previous crack-sentencing adjustments, though only four were successful, according to court records.

"No one's getting a deal," said Mirchandani, the federal public defender. "In some cases, they should have been released