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Federal Judiciary

: Second Circuit Sentencing Blog

Remanding To Different District Court Judge For Failure To Conduct Resentencing Hearing

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United States v. Johnson, No. 06-2026-cr (2d Cir. July 28, 2010) (found here)

Johnson's prior life sentence was vacated, and his case remanded for resentencing. On remand, the district court declined to conduct a new sentencing hearing and instead issued a new sentencing opinion once again sentencing Johnson to life. As the Second Circuit noted, it's prior order required a new sentencing hearing. The district court's failure to conduct one constituted reversible error.

Thus, the only question for the Second Circuit was whether to send it back to the same judge or assign a new judge. It chose to reassign the case. Specifically, it stated that:

Though we do not doubt Judge Johnson would comply faithfully with out instructions following remand, and express no view as to the proper sentence in this case, the number of errors that have attended defendant's repeated sentencing proceedings could lead a reasonable observer to question the court's impartiality. Though we are mindful of the inefficiencies associated with reassignment, we further note that because defendant is entitled to de novo resentencing, any district court judge would be required to update the record and re-weigh the factors contained in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a).

Full post as published by Second Circuit Sentencing Blog on July 29, 2010 (boomark / email).