Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Sixth Circuit panel finds five-day sentence for child porn offense substantively unreasonable

By Douglas A. Berman

The Sixth Circuit handed down US v. Christman, No. 08-4474 (6th Cir. June 22, 2010) (available here), yet another notable sentencing decision in yet another ugly child porn case.  The case appears to have been handled poorly in a variety of ways, as evidence by this explanation at the start of the opinion: Richard Christman pled guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography in January 2005 pursuant to a plea agreement calling for dismissal of the remaining counts against him, four counts of distribution child pornography. The district court sentenced him to 57 months in prison, a within- Guidelines sentence at the bottom of the 57-71 month recommended range. Several months later, the district court admitted that it had relied on impermissible information outside the pre-sentence report in sentencing Christman, and Christman appealed his sentence to this Court...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 22, 2010 (boomark / email).