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Second Circuit Sentencing Blog 
Summaries and analysis of ALL sentencing decisions in the Second Circuit and the disrict courts of the Second Circuit.
Post Frequency: 0.6/day Last Entry: November 23, 2010 at 15:17:29 Recent Entries: 219
Go to Second Circuit Sentencing Blog, find other Federal Judiciary blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Family Circumstances And A Non-Guidelines Sentence
Posted on June 22, 2009United States v. Clark, No. 08-CR-332 (JBW), 2009 WL 1617939 (E.D.N.Y. June 10, 2009) Clark pled guilty to count two of a twelve-count indictment charging a scheme to defraud a bank. For his offense, Clark faced an advisory Guidelines range...
Role Enhancements And RICO
Posted on June 22, 2009United States v. Ivezaj, Docket No. 06-3112-cr-(L), et al., (2d Cir. June 11, 2009) (found here) Ivezaj challenged his sentence on the ground that any aggravating role enhancement the district court applied should have been based on his conduct as...
Judge Sotomayor And The Sentencing Guidelines
Posted on May 28, 2009There is much out there (just consult the major news outlets) concerning Judge (and proposed Justice) Sotomayor. (Congrats to Judge Sotomayor!) For those who are interested in her sentencing jurisprudence, attention should be paid to Doug Berman's Sentencing Law and...
Second Circuit: No Below New Guidelines Sentences On Crack Resentencings
Posted on May 28, 2009United States v. Savoy, Docket No. 08-4900-cr (2d Cir. May 27, 2009) (found here) The Second Circuit (including Judge Sotomayor) considered the question of whether Section 1B1.10 of the Guidelines (the Sentencing Commission's policy statement regarding the reduction of sentences...
A Series Of Procedural Errors
Posted on May 22, 2009United States v. Weisberg, No. 07-CR-066A, 2009 WL 1373676 (W.D.N.Y. May 15, 2009) A United States District Judge was compelled to reverse and remand the sentencing decision of a United States Magistrate Judge after discovering several procedural errors...
Non-Guidelines Sentence Based On Defendant's History And Characteristics
Posted on May 15, 2009United States v. Bello, No. 08-CR-801 (JBW), 2009 WL 1310791 (E.D.N.Y. May 5, 2009) Bello pled guilty to a narcotics offense for which the Guidelines indicated a 37 to 46 month term of imprisonment (Level 21). Bello, however, qualified for...
Letter to the Editor -- New York Times
Posted on May 11, 2009Here's a link to my letter to the editor published in today's edition of the New York Times in response to an op-ed last week by former Attorney General John Ashcroft concerning deferred prosecution agreements. Or, for those who don't...
Every Variance Counts
Posted on May 06, 2009United States v. Pender, No. 07-CR-874 (JBW), 2009 WL 1181052 (E.D.N.Y. May 1, 2009) Pender faced an advisory Guidelines range of 135 to 168 months for his role in a crack distribution ring,but was sentenced "only" to 120 months imprisonment....
Didn't Take Much To Get There, And Sounds Like It Was The Right Sentence
Posted on May 06, 2009United States v. Mayala, No. 08-CR-42 (JBW), 2009 WL 1181051 (E.D.N.Y. May 1, 2009) Mayala faced an advisory Guidelines range of 6 to 12 months imprisonment for her role in a bank fraud scheme, and was sentenced to time served...
Chutzpah
Posted on May 06, 2009United States v. Ferraris, No. 08-5116-cr (2d Cir. May 6, 2009) (found here) Unless I'm missing something, the Second Circuit's short decision says it all: Defendant-Appellant Mark Ferraris challenges as unreasonable his sentence, which includes imprisonment for 36 months...
Second Circuit Affirms Wide Upward Variance
Posted on May 01, 2009United States v. Martinucci, 561 F.3d 533 (2d Cir. 2009) Martinucci pled guilty to one count of producing child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a). For that offense, he faced a 180 month mandatory minimum, even though the...
Judge Rakoff Courageously Does It Again: "When the letter of the law so far departs from justice as to become the instrument of brutality, common sense should call a halt."
Posted on April 24, 2009United States v. Ballard, 599 F. Supp. 2d 539 (S.D.N.Y. March 2, 2009) The distorting effects of mandatory minimum sentences are never more evident than in the case of defendant Zachary Ballard. Although his co-defendant, Anthony Steele, by entering into...
Who's Minding the Minders?
Posted on April 20, 2009The U.S. Department of Justice is charged with responsibility for investigating and prosecuting institutional wrongdoing. What happens, though, when the DOJ itself engages in misconduct? Last week Miami, FL district court judge Alan Gold imposed extraordinary sanctions on federal prosecutors...
Second Circuit: Abuse of Discretion Standard Applies to 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2) Motions
Posted on April 19, 2009United States v. Borden, Docket No. 08-1625-cr (2d Cir. April 17, 2009) (found here) Joining several other circuits, the Second Circuit has held that because 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) "states that a district court may reduce the term of imprisonment,...
Reversal For Failure To Consider Age-Recidivism Correlation
Posted on April 15, 2009United States v. Hamilton, et al., No. 07-2874-cr (2d Cir. April 14, 2008) (found here) Hamilton argued that the district court abused its discretion by failing to consider Hamilton's age and his reduced likelihood of recidivism. He argued that because...
Second Circuit: Investment Loss Includes Potential Gain
Posted on April 15, 2009United States v. Scott, No. 08-1489-cr (2d Cir. April 14, 2009) (found here) On appeal Scott contended that the district court incorrectly calculated the amount of restitution he owed his victims because it had included "lost investment returns, calculated as...
Once Again, The Safety Valve
Posted on April 15, 2009United States v. Smith, No. 08-CR-545 (JBW), 2009 WL 971682 (E.D.N.Y. April 2, 2009) How do you get from a five year mandatory minimum sentence and an advisory Guidelines range of 37 to 46 months down to a sentence of...
Safety Valve Reduces Sentence From 10 Year Mandatory Minimum To Time Served
Posted on April 12, 2009United States v. Samuels, No. S1-08-Cr.-08-03 (RWS), 2009 WL 875320 (S.D.N.Y. April 2, 2009) Ah . . . the power that the safety valve can sometimes yield. Samuels pled guilty to conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute...
Note To Appellate Lawyers: Getting Away From An Appeal Waiver
Posted on April 11, 2009United States v. Peter, No. 08-1544-cr (2d Cir. April 10, 2009) (found here) Peter is, for the most part, an unremarkable procedural and substantive unreasonableness appeal. But Peter's plea agreement contained an appellate waiver (just as most plea agreements do)...
Second Circuit: Still No Problem With Acquitted Conduct Sentencing
Posted on April 11, 2009United States v. Robles, et al., Nos. 07-1013-cr (L), 07-1027-cr (con), 07-1221-cr (con) (2d Cir. April 9, 2009) (found here) There has been much criticism of acquitted conduct sentencing. I've written on it here. And Doug Berman of Sentencing Law...
A Wild Sentencing Story
Posted on April 08, 2009United States v. Walker, No. 08-1474-cr (2d Cir. April 8, 2009) (found here) You don't often see a story like this one. Walker was sentenced to 96 months for two counts of bank fraud. On appeal, he argued that (among...
Second Circuit Affirms Wide Upward Variance
Posted on April 08, 2009United States v. Martinucci, Docket No. 08-0104-cr (2d Cir. April 8, 2009) (found here) Martinucci was convicted of some pretty serious crimes (child pornography and sexual abuse and the like). His offense level under the Guidelines was 33, which indicated...
The Longest . . . Resentencing Hearing
Posted on April 08, 2009United States v. Hernandez, No. 89-CR-229 (TCP) (E.D.N.Y. March 27, 2009) Hernandez was highlighted for me in an email I received. The substance of the re-sentencing is not nearly as interesting and perplexing as the process by which it came...
4 Is The "Magic Number" For Fast-Track Disparity Downward Adjustments
Posted on April 02, 2009United States v. Gutierrez-Hernandez, No. 08 Cr. 1335-01 (RWS), 2009 WL 812265 (S.D.N.Y. March 26, 2009) In this case, Judge Sweet takes on the question of the appropriate adjustment to account for the disparity in Guidelines offense levels for illegal...
Procedural Error Found, Yet No Remand For Resentencing
Posted on April 01, 2009United States v. Ramirez, No. 08-2771-cr (2d Cir. April 1, 2009) (found here) It's no April Fools joke. The Second Circuit denied a Government appeal based on procedural errors. Here's how it went down. The Government submitted that Ramirez's sentence...
A Little Somthing On Loss Estimates
Posted on March 31, 2009United States v. Iqbal, No. 08-2262-cr (2d Cir. March 31, 2009) (found here) On appeal, Iqbal challenged his 24 month sentence, asserting that the district court's loss calculation was erroneous. Specifically, the district court determined that the loss amount exceeded...
No Credit For You!
Posted on March 30, 2009United States v. Coons, No. 07-2485-cr (2d Cir. March 30, 2009) (found here) Coons received a 2-6 year indeterminate New York state sentence for reckless endangerment. He was released on parole, and subsequently arrested and placed in state custody for...
Why No Criminal History Downward Departure?
Posted on March 26, 2009United States v. Ortiz-Portalatin, No. 08-CR-352 (JBW), 2009 WL 763355 (E.D.N.Y. March 13, 2009) Because the standards are looser, I've always been a big fan of criminal history downward departures. And it seems that Ortiz-Portalatin was a good candidate for...
When Bad Things Happen To Good Plea Agreements
Posted on March 25, 2009United States v. Soto, et al., Nos. 08-0654-cr, 08-0706 (2d Cir. March 25, 2009) (found here) The defendants signed plea agreements with the Government setting forth stipulated Guidelines ranges. The Second Circuit does not disclose what those ranges were...
A Non-Guidelines Sentence Based On The History And Characteristics Of The Defendant
Posted on March 23, 2009United States v. Ahmad, No. 08-CR-460 (JBW), 2009 WL 700870 (E.D.N.Y. March 16, 2009) The Court calculated Ahmad's Guidelines offense level to be 10 for Count 1 of a two count indictment (charging possession and use of a United States...
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