Opinion ID: 541981
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Excessive Sentences

Text: 39 The defendants next contend that the district court abused its discretion by imposing excessive sentences. To support this claim, the defendants argue that they should have received lesser sentences because two of them, Buford and Joiner, had no prior felony convictions and because the injury to Tetter was only slight. Again, we are unpersuaded. 40 Sentencing judges are authorized to decide what weight mitigating and aggravating factors should receive. George, 891 F.2d at 143; Marquardt, 786 F.2d at 781. The record shows that the district court considered the defendants' prior criminal histories and found that none of the defendants' records was unblemished. Additionally, the district court found that the attack on an innocent woman to prevent a witness from testifying was a horrendous crime and that attack was carried out at the direction of the El Rukns. Because a reviewing court will not question the relative importance placed on one factor over another where the district court has considered the mitigating factors raised by a defendant, Perez, 858 F.2d at 1276 (citation omitted), this argument of the defendants must fail. 41 The defendants also contend that their sentences were excessive because under the Sentencing Guidelines, their sentences would have been less than one-half of those that they actually received. The defendants, however, committed these crimes in October 1987 and the Guidelines do not apply to offenses occurring before November 1, 1987, George, 891 F.2d at 143 & n. 6--a point that the defendants do not dispute. We have already concluded that the district court properly considered the evidence before it when determining what sentences to impose. It is irrelevant that had this been a Guidelines case, the defendants might have received lighter sentences. 42 We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it sentenced each of the defendants to a term of twenty-years imprisonment.