In this week’s episode of our Federal Sentencing Round-Up, we review the recent guilty plea of rap artist DMX and likely sentence he may receive. We also examine the recent 60-year sentence of former Olympic doctor Larry Nassar on child pornography receipt and distribution charges.
Alan Ellis and Mark H. Allenbaugh discuss proposed amendments to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines pertaining to acceptance of responsibly, first offenders and alternatives to incarceration. AE-CLIP_Bloomberg BNA_WC_2018_Amend_Ellis_Allenabaugh
The impact of America’s punishment policies is often measured in numbers: there are now 2.2 million people in our jails and prisons; one in a hundred and fifteen adults is confined behind bars; our inmate population is four times larger than it was in 1980. “We Are Witnesses,” a collection of short videos, offers a
This Saturday, October 28, 2017, the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue. According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6.4 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs. The study shows that a majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends,
Sometimes the law is wrong even when it is right. Or, in the words of Judge Guido Calabresi, sometimes an otherwise substantively reasonable sentence can still be “absurd.” In United States v. Jones, 15-1518 (2d Cir. Oct. 5, 2017), the a “mentally deficient” defendant with an I.Q. of 69, appealed his 180-month sentence for biting the
A Missouri man Pleaded guilty on October 23, 2017 to producing child pornography involving a toddler, which carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years’ imprisonment. The district court sentenced him to 23 years, 4 months. Sex offenders receive the highest average sentences at the federal level except for first-degree murder. They now constitute the third-largest
A Florida man was convicted by a jury of trafficking a 14-year-old girl out of a motel room over a two-month period. Sex offenders receive the highest average sentences at the federal level except for murder. They now constitute the third-largest group of offenders housed by the federal Bureau of Prisons at over 15,000 inmates,
A group of Chinese nationals has pleaded guilty to conspiring with U.S. citizens to enter into sham marriages with foreign nationals for purposes of evading immigration laws. Citizens were each paid $25,000 for their marriage to the foreign nationals. Conspiracy carries a five-year statutory maximum penalty. https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/naturalized-us-citizen-residing-albuquerque-pleads-guilty-federal-marriage-fraud-charge
On October 20, 2017, in a published opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a 51-month sentence for a defendant who was convicted by a jury of using a scheme involving the purchase of hundreds of money orders to evade taxes on income from her business. From 2006-2016, there were 4,983 individuals sentenced under the tax