Court Opinion

ID: 9494847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:48:29.188081+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:39.764284
License: Public Domain

LAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
In this particular case, the defendant has been given a six month sentence to be followed by two years of probation with 150 hours per year of community service and three years of supervised released. An experienced district judge who is much more familiar with the case than this court has determined that this is a fair and equitable sentence. I agree with the district judge. The only exception is that there is no basis within the Sentencing Guidelines (the law) for the district court to depart downward. On that basis, the defendant, rather than looking forward to “graduating” from her sentence at a community facility in a few days, must face the alternative of going to prison for some thirty-one to forty months.
This case demonstrates the futility of guideline sentencing. The human factor is totally removed. The guidelines under these circumstances are extremely punitive. Circuit judges have made this plea on previous occasions, but it has fallen on deaf ears. The worst tragedy of the last fifty years in judicial administration has been the passage of the Sentencing Guidelines. Our hands are now tied as, I am afraid, are the hands of the district court as well.
I ask that this opinion be sent by the clerk’s office of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to the members of the Sentencing Guideline Commission as well as to the Senate Judiciary Committee.