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First Circuit finds stat max sentence (substantively?) unreasonable

By Douglas A. Berman

At the end of a very long opinion covering lots of different criminal justice issues, the First Circuit today in US v. Ofray-Campos, No. 05-1461 (1st Cir. July 7, 2008) (available here), reverses on defendant's above-guideline sentence as unreasonable. Here is how the panel concludes its sentencing analysis:In sum, the district court?s description of López- Soto?s conduct, while justifying an upward variance, was not sufficiently compelling to support a statutory sentence of more than double the maximum of the applicable guidelines range.  There was ample room for a variance above the guidelines and below the statutory maximum to accomplish the trial judge?s stated purposes in sentencing López-Soto.  Although ?we emphasize that we do not reject the sentence imposed below solely because of the magnitude of its deviation from the guideline-recommended range,? Zapete-Garcia, 447 F...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 07, 2008 (boomark / email).