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Split Sixth Circuit finds below-guideline sentence substantively unreasonable

By Douglas A. Berman

In a long opinion that thoughtfully seeks to unpack the standards for substantive reasonableness review, a split Sixth Circuit panel in US v. Funk, No. 05-3708 (6th Cir. July 22, 2008) (available here), reverse a sentence well below the guidelines as substantively unreasonable.  There is a lot of Funky spunk in both the majority opinion's effort to make sense of reasonableness review and also in Chief Judge Boggs' brief dissent.  These portions of the dissent effectively spotlight why substantive reasonableness review is so challenging:This case represents essentially a judgment call under the rather unclear standard of ?reasonableness? that we have been given by the Supreme Court in the wake of Rita, Kimbrough, and Gall.  Although I recognize that it is a close question, I am persuaded by the emphasis on the discretion of district courts in the recent Supreme Court cases that the sentence here should be affirmed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 22, 2008 (boomark / email).