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Two little and notable Ninth Circuit sentencing opinions

By Douglas A. Berman

The Ninth Circuit handed down two notable little sentencing opinions this afternoon.  Here are links to the unanmious panel rulings, along with snippets from the decisions: United States v. Wipf, No. 09-50291 (9th Cir. Aug. 31, 2010) (available here): Appellant argued that the district court had discretion under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) to impose a sentence below the mandatory minimum, and that it should do so given her particular circumstances. She contended that there was a conflict between § 3553(a )? which requires district courts to impose the lowest sentence possible to achieve Congress?s sentencing goals ? and the ten-year mandatory statutory minimum.... We have never addressed explicitly the question of whether 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) permits a district court to impose a sentence below a mandatory statutory minimum...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 31, 2010 (boomark / email).