Pleas & Sentencing – General Appeal

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Norman Shaw, Jr.

Case No.: 14-2881

Officials: BAUER, FLAUM, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges

Focus: Pleas & Sentencing – General Appeal

Court provides adequate explanation for departure from sentencing guidelines given facts of case and appellant history.

“Here, while the district court’s sentence was a major departure from the Sentencing Guidelines range, the district court gave a sufficiently adequate explanation for the departure. The district court related the sentence to Shaw’s present offense, noting that “heroin puts so many at risk including prison staff and other inmates” and that such drugs “could result in violence.” It also detailed Shaw’s ongoing criminal history, repeated “failure to comply … with conditions of parole and supervised release,” and “non-compliance while in custody,” which included “seven violations resulting in disciplinary actions.” The district court also emphasized Shaw’s marked recidivism, saying at one point, “Incarceration hasn’t or doesn’t motivate you to refrain from criminal conduct and any motivation to change seems nonexistent.” It then sentenced Shaw in an effort to “[p]romote respect for the law[,] provide just punishment, afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct[,] and protect the public from further crimes,” in addition to other 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. This thorough explanation justified imprisoning Shaw for 60 months and renders the above-Guidelines sentence substantively reasonable.”

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.