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Judge Gould on White Collar Criminal Sentences

Ninth Circuit Judge Ronald M. Gould issued a powerful dissent today, in a case where a notorious criminal avoided a prison sentence.  We shall let the man speak for himself: To provide for a mere slap on the wrist of those convicted of serious economic crimes, with no or virtually no time imprisoned as punishment, strikes a blow to the integrity of majority?s approach will be dangerous to respect for our legal system. Can it be seriously maintained that wilful offenders who commit white collar crime, who steal intentionally hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, should receive no forced incarceration, while those poor and powerless criminal defendants who commit common larceny or theft often serve extensive hard time? I respectfully dissent because I do not believe it prudent for us as an appellate court to hold as reasonable sentences that in their laxity to white collar crime are patently unreasonable, and that indeed will likely be considered offensively unreasonable to the vast majority of law abiding citizens who may become aware of these proceedings...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on August 01, 2008 (boomark / email).