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Sentencing — supervised release — buy money

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//January 15, 2014//

Sentencing — supervised release — buy money

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//January 15, 2014//

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — supervised release — buy money

A judge may, as a condition of supervised release, order the defendant to reimburse “buy money” dispensed by the government, and not recovered by it, in its investigation of the defendant.

“[A]s well-explained by Judge Edmund Ludwig in his separate opinion in the Cottman case, 142 F.3d at 170–73, the fact that such an order is not authorized or compelled by the statutory provision governing restitution doesn’t mean it can’t be made a condition of supervised release. Supervised release is open-ended; anything within reason (as long as it is compliant with the restrictions and cautionary reminders in 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d), none violated by the repayment order in this case) that serves a penological function is permitted. From the standpoint of specific deterrence (deterring the defendant, as distinct from other potential offenders, from committing crimes after his release from prison), an order to pay that is not authorized by the restitution statute may nevertheless, like a fine, deter him from committing future crimes by increasing the penalty for this crime. That will remind him of one of the costs that he will face should he be convicted of a similar crime in the future. Also like a fine, the order to repay is a payback for a cost that his crime imposed, though not on a direct victim—but still a cost. So close to a fine is the order to repay that the majority opinion in Cottman said that ‘in future cases the district court may consider imposing a fine which is equivalent to the amount of any buy money a defendant has received from the Government.’ 142 F.3d at 170 n. 14.”

Affirmed.

13-2836 U.S. v. Williams

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Adelman, J., Posner, J.

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