Sentencing — reasonableness

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//July 3, 2014//

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — reasonableness

Where the district court gave no explanation for the sentence it imposed, the sentence must be reversed.

“The judge summarily rejected the government’s recommendation (and the government has not appealed that rejection), but said very little to justify a 97-month sentence, and what he did say was in the nature of a conclusion rather than a reason. Perhaps he can be forgiven for being caught off guard by the defense attorney’s question, everyone’s attention having been focused up to then on whether 180 months was an appropriate sentence. Still, the 97-month sentence was unexplained and therefore must be vacated and the case remanded for resentencing. (The resentencing will be before a different judge because Judge Stiehl has retired.)”

Reversed and Remanded.

14-1013 U.S. v. Spann

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Stiehl, J., Posner, J.

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