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Eleventh Circuit affirms variance of 7+ years above child porn guideline range

By Douglas A. Berman

The Eleventh Circuit has a notable opinion today in US v. Turner, No. 09-15074 (11th Cir. Nov. 17, 2010) (available here), which affirms an 25-year above-guideline sentence for a child porn downloader.  The district court threw the book at the defendant in this case in large part because, two decades before his child porn possession, had been convicted in Alabama state court first degree sexual assault of a toddler.  The Eleventh Circuit rejected various guideline-based and reasonableness-based challenges to the sentence. The defendant's criminal history in Turner makes the outcome in the case not all that surprising or troublesome.  Nevertheless, I found it notable that, while so many district judges and circuit courts have been heard to lament the undue severity of the child porn guidelines as applied to those who only download images from the internet, this case provides an example of a district judge concluding that these same guidelines were not nearly severe enough in one particular case...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on November 17, 2010 (boomark / email).