It's depressing...

...when 10 months in federal prison seems quick.

News and Notes

1. Ken Jenne's days in prison. (via Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel). From Dan Christensen: Once Broward's most powerful politician, ex-Sheriff Ken Jenne now spends his days raising vegetables in the garden of a federal prison camp in rural Virginia.
Jenne, convicted of corruption last fall, talked briefly about his new duties in a three-hour deposition taken six weeks ago in a federal civil rights lawsuit in which he's a defendant.
...''I work in what is called the garden planting various vegetables,'' Jenne, 61, told Fort Lauderdale lawyer Barbara Heyer.

2. Prosecutors object to Joe Cool polygraph. (via Sun-Sentinel):

Federal prosecutors are fighting to make sure jurors never hear that one of the suspects in the murders of four people at sea passed two lie detector tests saying he did not take part in killing any of the crew members on the Joe Cool.Guillermo Zarabozo, 20, of Hialeah and Kirby Archer, 36, of Strawberry, Ark., who were passengers on the boat's ill-fated charter voyage in September, are charged with four counts of first degree murder and could face the death penalty. Their trial is expected to begin this fall.Zarabozo's lawyers say his favorable polygraph results should be allowed as evidence because they corroborate Zarabozo's version of events--that he was lured onto the boat under false pretenses by Archer and did not know anything illegal was going to happen until Archer fired the fatal shots.At a hearing in Miami federal court Wednesday, prosecutor Karen Gilbert said the polygraph evidence should not be allowed because it is not reliable and could have too much influence on jurors.
U.S. District Judge Paul Huck said he would rule after government officials conduct a separate polygraph exam of Zarabozo--a procedure defense lawyers said they welcomed.

The cold realities of prison

Dan Christensen has this story about how Ken Jenne is adjusting to prison. Mostly, he's bored and cold:

All Ken Jenne wants for Christmas is a warm sweat shirt.
''He really wants a sweat shirt because it's cold in prison,'' said his son, State Rep. Evan Jenne.

***

Jenne, whose prisoner number is 77434-004, observed his 61st birthday in prison in Miami last Saturday. His wife and son saw him Monday.
''We weren't allowed to bring him anything for his birthday,'' Evan Jenne said.
Jenne said his father was ``in good spirits.''
''The guards are treating him well and with respect,'' he said. ``My father doesn't feel in mortal danger. Every time he moves, there is a legion of guards around him.''
Jenne, who once hoped to be governor, now spends his days fighting boredom, his son said.
The former sheriff fills his days by reading a lot. ''Right now, he's reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton. It's a paperback. No hard covers are allowed,'' his son said.

Rumpole vs. Mayo

Rumpole is fired up -- he goes to town on Sun-Sentinel columnist Mike Mayo here for his coverage of the Ken Jenne sentencing. (I'm a Mike Mayo fan and generally agree with him, but I agree with Rumpole on this one. What's going on this week -- I'm agreeing with Fred Grimm and Rumpole, and disagreeing with Mike Mayo...)

Here's a snippet:

Judge D did just what we want a Judge to do in a sentencing hearing: he weighed the defendant’s entire life against his admitted crimes. Judge D saw beyond the public’s cry for blood lust and vengeance and he fashioned a sentence that punished Mr. Jenne but was proportionate to his crime. Mr. Jenne served the public for over 30 years, and for the most part he served the public well. He left a lucrative law practice for public service, and along the way he made mistakes and lapses of judgment that became crimes. Jenne damn well should have known better, and for that reason the former Sheriff of Broward County sits in jail cell as you are reading this. That along with the public humiliation, probable disbarment, possible loss of pension, and financial burdens now thrust upon Mr. Jenne’s 60 year old wife are sufficient punishment for this man.

But Mr. Mayo cannot (or more likely ,chooses not) to see that the justice system does not exist merely for the judge to be a human calculator in which he or she totals the high possible sentence and then imposes that sentence. We have had (and currently have) our share of those Judges in Miami State court, and none of those Judges are especially admired for their acumen, insight and legal decisions.

In Mayo’s world, every time a judge does not arrive at the maximum sentence, especially for a public figure, it means the justice system is broken and served by a bunch of liberal “turn em loose” Judges who with a wink and a nod let their politician pals loose. That type of column catches the eye of the public, not to mention Hollywood, but it does a disservice to the readers of the Sun Sentinel and the citizens of Broward.

There's a lot more... Go read it.

Fred Grimm on the Sentencing Guidelines

I very rarely agree with Fred Grimm, but today he criticizes the Sentencing Guidelines, and I couldn't agree more.

Grimm says:

A drama of Shakespearean magnitude was supposed to unfold in a federal courtroom, but it was reduced to numbers.

Reporters, come to learn the fate of the fallen Broward sheriff, sat mystified as the judge and lawyers abandoned English and broke into a secret numerical language. They added. They subtracted. They plugged varying values into a mathematical formula to arrive at hypothetical levels.

Of course, if one starts at Level 12 and concedes a two-level enhancer and compares that to a Level 16 with a downward departure worth three levels, the outcome still fits the 12-to-24-month range. Or is it 18-to-24?

It was as if instead of attending a sentencing hearing at the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, I had stumbled into a math class. The professor, U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas, and prosecutor Matt Axelrod crunched the numbers for 30 minutes.

For those of you who thought that the guidelines were a thing of the past, you couldn't be more wrong. Judges still must consider the guidelines and therefore must engage in this ritual of adding and subtracting points. More from Grimm:

And Ken Jenne, once the most powerful politician in Broward County, sat impassively as lawyers debated what numerical values to assign aspects of his life. Criminal transgressions minus good works. Either add or subtract values for acceptance of responsibility, the money he filched, his remorse, his reluctance to admit guilt. Figure years of public service but take an upward departure for betraying the public trust.

It amounted to a downward departure from reality. As if a judge only needed a black robe and hand calculator.

Will Jenne get his pension?

Mike Mayo examines the issue on his blog here.

''I think he could have been governor one day.''

That was Judge Dimitrouleas at Ken Jenne's sentencing today. Judge D ordered Jenne to surrender on the spot for his year and a day sentence (the extra day is added so that Jenne will get good time credit -- the sentence has to be more than a year). Jenne will end up serving about 10 months.

Although the parties had agreed that the advisory guidelines were 18-24 months, the probation office recommended a guideline range of 12-18 months. The government lawyers were requesting a high-end sentence of 24 months. Even though the defense was asking for probation, this was a pretty big win for Jenne. U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta came out and criticized the sentence as too light.*

Here's the initial coverage by the Herald and the Sun-Sentinel.

SDFLA blog question of the day: 10 months in jail -- appropriate sentence? too high? too low?

*I thought the U.S. Attorney's office maintains that guideline sentences are always reasonable, so I'm not sure why this guideline sentence -- after a plea and acceptance of responsibility -- isn't reasonable.

Do letters at sentencing matter?

Former Sheriff Ken Jenne is being sentenced tomorrow (by Judge Dimitrouleas).

He has submitted a bunch of letters (here) for the judge to consider in imposing a reasonable sentence.

SDFLA blog question of the day -- do these letters make a difference with our judges?

Here's the Herald coverage of the letters and here is the Sun-Sentinel coverage.

And if you are interested in prison condition's for Jenne, here's the Herald's take.