Sentencing — relevance

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — relevance

The district court did not unreasonably consider that the defendant was in the country illegally and did not speak English.

“To the extent that Mr. Flores-Olague cites various cases in an effort to support his contention that the district judge improperly included in her analysis his personal characteristics, we reject these authorities as off point. The relationship between the rulings in these cases and the matter before us is attenuated at best, and in any event fails to provide a basis for ignoring or undermining the presumption of reasonableness to be accorded a sentence that falls within a properly calculated advisory guidelines range. United States v. Block, 705 F.3d 755, 762 (7th Cir. 2013). For instance, United States v. Figueroa, 622 F.3d 739 (7th Cir. 2010), does not in any way bolster Mr. Flores-Olague’s argument. There, the district court engaged in a distressingly inappropriate and irrelevant diatribe about illegal immigration, ‘lash[ing] out,’ ‘occasionally referring to “you people” or “those people,”’ even comparing that defendant to Adolf Hitler. Figueroa, 622 F.3d at 743. In United States v. Smith, 400 F. App’x 96 (7th Cir. 2010), the district court accused the defendant of ‘ruining Mexico’ and contributing to ‘broader issues of urban decline.’ Smith, 400 F. App’x at 98. It is far-fetched to compare such judicial intemperance to the comments made at Mr. Flores-Olague’s sentencing by Judge Crabb, who pertinently noted as matters of fact—not hyperbole—that Mr. Flores-Olague ‘[was] in the country illegally and . . . [did] not speak English.’ Besides being true, these facts are relevant to a fairly determined sentence because they reflect the strength of the defendant’s ties to the community as they relate to the likelihood of his successful post-incarceration adjustments to society. Accordingly, we reject Mr. Flores-Olague’s argument that this single, isolated statement by the judge tainted the fairness or appropriateness of the sentence that was imposed.”

Affirmed.

12-2232 U.S. v. Flores-Olague

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Crabb, J., Barker, J.