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Fourth Lays Out Post-Gall Procedures, Upholds Downward Variance

By Jonathan Byrne

US v. Pauley: Pauley pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography. The unusual facts of the case involve Pauley, a middle school (later high school) teacher, being approached by a female student who asked whether he was interested in paying her for nude pictures she took of herself. Pauley agreed and pictures were exchanged during successive school years. When both Pauley and the student moved to high school, she proposed to take pictures of herself and another female student. The pictures were taken, but the other student informed authorities, who recovered the pictures.At sentencing, the district court calculated Pauley's advisory Guideline range to be 78 to 97 months in prison. After hearing arguments from the parties, the district court imposed a sentence of 42 months in prison, for numerous reasons: (1) in buying the nude photographs each time, Pauley initially was approached by the victim with such a proposal; (2) fewer than two dozen pornographic photographs were taken with the victim?s Polaroid camera; (3) the victim?s face did not appear in any of the photographs; (4) Pauley displayed deep remorse; (5) besides the criminal conduct at issue, Pauley was a model citizen and a good father and teacher; (6) as a result of his conviction, Pauley lost his teaching certificate and his state pension; (7) Pauley agreed to a lifetime of supervised release; (8) no other child pornography was found in Pauley?s house; and (9) the counseling Pauley would receive during incarceration would rehabilitate him, allow him to lead a productive life upon release, and make further crimes by Pauley extremely unlikely...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Circuit Blog on December 31, 2007 (boomark / email).