Saturday, July 17, 2010

Wesley Snipes' conviction and 3-year sentence affirmed

Wesley Snipes was only convicted of three misdemeanors (and acquitted of all the felonies), yet the 11th Circuit has affirmed his 3-year sentence.  That seems harsh to me, especially because he was sentenced based on the relevant conduct for which he was acquitted.  From the reasonableness portion of the opinion:

Here, the district court carefully complied with the sentencing procedures. The judge conducted an extensive sentencing hearing and listened to Snipes’s allocution, several character witnesses, and argument about sentencing. The court correctly calculated the guideline range and, again, noted that the guidelines were advisory. The sentencing transcript reveals that the judge weighed each factor embodied in the Section 3553(a) calculus before pronouncing the sentence, which was within the recommended guideline range. The sentence was not procedurally unreasonable.


Next, we “consider the substantive reasonableness of the sentence imposed under an abuse-of-discretion standard.” Id. at 1190 (quoting Gall, 552 U.S. at 51). “[W]e will not second guess the weight (or lack thereof) that the judge accorded to a given factor . . . [under § 3553(a)], as long as the sentence ultimately imposed is reasonable in light of all the circumstances presented.” Id. at 1191 (citation and quotation marks omitted). The party challenging a sentence has the burden of establishing that it was unreasonable. United States v. Talley, 431 F.3d 784, 788 (11th Cir. 2005).


The district court gave ample consideration to each of the relevant considerations found in 3553(a). Although the discussion about general deterrence was somewhat longer than the discussion of the other factors, its length corresponds with the emphasis the Sentencing Guidelines placed on deterrence in the criminal tax context. The introductory commentary to the Tax section of the Sentencing Guidelines explains that 
[b]ecause of the limited number of criminal tax prosecutions relative to the estimated incidence of such violations, deterring others from violating the tax laws is a primary consideration underlying these guidelines. Recognition that the sentence for a criminal tax case will be commensurate with the gravity of the offense should act as a deterrent to would-be violators. U.S.S.G. Ch. 2 Pt. T, intro. Comment (emphasis added).
Moreover, “[w]hen the district court imposes a sentence within the advisory

Friday, July 16, 2010

Live blogging Willy Ferrer's swearing-in








Willy Ferrer's investiture today

Chief Judge Moreno swears Willy in at 3pm today at the new courthouse.  So, those of you who came to work in casual clothes today or who are planning to sneak out early, you're gonna miss it. 

Congrats to Willy.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

"The facts of this case are riddled with extraordinary cruelty and evil."

You know that you aren't going to win an appeal with that as the opening line of the opinion.  And that's how Judge Marcus started off his 87-page opinion in USA v. Chuckie Taylor.   And here's the conclusion:

In sum, we affirm Emmanuel’s convictions and sentence in full. The Torture Act’s proscriptions against both torture and conspiracy to commit torture are constitutional, and may be applied to extraterritorial conduct. The district court did not plainly err in applying § 924(c) to Emmanuel’s extraterritorial conduct, nor in its conduct of this lengthy trial. Finally, Emmanuel’s advisory Sentencing Guidelines range was correctly calculated by the district court, and the sentences imposed violate neither the CAT nor the Constitution.

UPDATE -- here's the AP story.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Barefoot Bandit appears before Judge Dube

It was a really quick hearing -- according to Curt Anderson: 

The American teenager who police call the "Barefoot Bandit" made his first appearance in a U.S. court since being extradited from the Bahamas.
Colton Harris-Moore appeared briefly in federal court in Miami on Wednesday. He is charged with committing a two-year string of break-ins and plane thefts across the United States. A judge set another hearing Friday to give Harris-Moore time to hire a lawyer.
The 19-year-old convict's alleged crime spree ended Sunday when Bahamian police shot out the engines of a stolen boat and arrested him. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to entering that country illegally and was deported hours later.
He had arrived in the Bahamas last week, crash landing a plane he allegedly stole in Indiana