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Probation Sentence in Child Porn Case Falls as Procedurally and Substantively Unreasonable

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

Earlier this year, the en banc Circuit directed in United States v. Tomko (Blog post here) that "if the district court?s sentence is procedurally sound, we will affirm it unless no reasonable sentencing court would have imposed the same sentence on that particular defendant for the reasons the district court provided." This week, in United States v. Lychock, No. 06-3311, a panel flunks a sentence under that standard. The defendant, following conviction for possessing between 150 and 300 images of child pornography, had received five years of probation and a $10,000 fine when the Guidelines range was 30 to 37 months? imprisonment. The Court vacates the sentence as both procedurally and substantively unreasonable.Two leading factors in the Court?s analysis appear to have been the sentence of probation and the defendant?s apprehension in a "wider investigation into an international child pornography enterprise," which has led to the sentencing of numerous defendants in the District of New Jersey for very similar offenses...continue to full post

Full post as published by Third Circuit Blog on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).