10-CR-62 U.S. v. Hughes

Listen to this article

Sentencing
Misprision of a felony

A ten-month sentence, concurrent with a state court sentence is reasonable for misprision of a felony.

“The guidelines called for a term of 30-36 months, but under the circumstances I found a lesser term sufficient to satisfy the purposes of sentencing. First, like other guidelines that attempt to account for a defendant’s limited or minor role, U.S.S.G. § 2X4.1 is a rather blunt tool. Setting the level 9 levels lower than that applicable to the underlying felony, but not higher than 19, might appropriately capture a misprision defendant’s culpability, or it might not; it depends on what he actually did. Some misprision defendants go to great lengths to conceal the crime, endangering or threatening others in doing so; some profit from their involvement; and some assist in the commission of the underlying offense. Others, like the defendant in the present case, assist in the concealment in relatively minor ways. The record in this case contained no evidence that defendant’s conduct was important to the success of the scheme or its ability to evade detection. Others acted as look-outs during actual drug deals. Many of the co-conspirators who made statements to law enforcement had little or nothing to say about defendant.”

10-CR-62 U.S. v. Hughes

E.D.Wis., Adelman, J.