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A terror-filled debate over substantive reasonableness

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed at How Appealing and in this AP article headlined "Court orders new sentence for al-Qaida member," the Fourth Circuit on late Friday afternoon "rejected a 30-year prison term and ordered a new sentencing hearing for Ahmed Omar Abu Ali [based on prosecutors' claim] that the judge improperly deviated from federal sentencing guidelines that called for life in prison." The final 20 pages of the majority opinion in US v. Ali, No. 06-4334 (4th Cir. June 6, 2008) (available here), as well as the entire 20-page partial dissent by Judge Motz, is focused on the substantive reasonableness of the district court's sentencing decision.  All these pages make for a very interesting reading, and spotlight the essential challenges (and perhaps the inevitable disagreements) over substantive reasonableness review in the wake of Gall and Kimbrough...continue to full post

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