Sentencing

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Rod Blagojevich

Case No.: 16-3254

Officials: EASTERBROOK, KANNE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing

Rod Blagojevich was convicted of 18 crimes committed while he was Governor of Illinois. The district court sentenced him to 168 months’ imprisonment. Our initial opinion vacated five of the convictions but affirmed the others and remanded for a potential retrial on the five vacated charges and for resentencing. 794 F.3d 729 (7th Cir. 2015). Blagojevich asked the Supreme Court to review that decision, and while the petition for certiorari was pending the district court put proceedings in abeyance. After the Supreme Court denied the petition, 136 S. Ct. 1491 (2016), rehearing denied, 136 S. Ct. 2386 (2016), the prosecutor announced that the five vacated charges would not be retried, and the district judge resentenced Blagojevich on the remaining 13 convictions. The sentence was again 168 months. As before, the judge determined that the Sentencing Guidelines recommend a term within the range of 360 months to life, then made some reductions that produced a final range of 151 to 188 months. (Our first opinion rejected a challenge to that range. See 794 F.3d at 743.) The judge recognized that 168 months is a stiff sentence for non-violent crimes by someone with no criminal record and unlikely to commit the same kinds of crimes again, because his impeachment and removal from office by the state legislature makes him ineligible for election to a new state office. Ill. Const. Art. IV §14. But the judge concluded that the sentence is justified by the gravity of Blagojevich’s offenses and the need to deter other public officials from acting as Blagojevich did.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.