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Substantive Reasonableness Review Survives: Panel Reverses Below-Guidelines 6-Year Sentence in Child Porn Case as Greater than Necessary

By Candace Hom, Melinda Ghilardi, Nancy Rimmer, Sarah Gannett, Renee Pietropaolo and Tieffa Harper

Congratulations to Andrea Bergman and others at the FPD for the District of New Jersey! In United States v. Olhovsky, __ F.3d __, 2009 WL 1014482 (3d Cir. Apr. 16, 2009), a panel of the Third Circuit reversed a six-year sentence for a child porn offender as procedurally and substantively unreasonable, remanding for imposition of a LOWER sentence. The panel held that the district court erred in not granting a subpoena for Olhovsky?s treatment provider to testify, failed to consider mitigating evidence, and imposed a harsher than necessary sentence (even though the sentence was below-Guidelines).Olhovsky was barely 18 at the time of his arrest, and had a very sad background, including severe birth defects, divorced parents, and a disabled mother...continue to full post

Full post as published by Third Circuit Blog on April 20, 2009 (boomark / email).