Sentencing

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7^th Circuit court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Grover Coleman Ferguson

Case No.: 15-3753

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and MANION and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges

Focus: Sentencing

Judge departs too far from advisory guidelines without substantial explanation.

“By statute a judge must impose “a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary,” to serve the purposes of sentencing. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Here, the court did not explain why 50 years was “sufficient, but not greater than necessary.” The government requested an above‐guideline sentence of 20 years. That recommendation did not bind the court, of course, but we are unable to tell from the district court’s stated reasoning why 20 or 30 or 40 years would have been insufficient to serve the purposes of sentencing mandated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). The district court’s explanation does not “allow for meaningful appellate review” of why the judge deemed 50 years appropriate, and not any shorter sentence. Gall, 552 U.S. at 50. We do not mean to overstate the district court’s duty of providing an explanation. Nor do we intend to imply that there is only one reasonable sentence in this or any other case, or that sentencing is an exact science. We have upheld other above‐guideline sentences that district courts did not justify in great detail, but those cases did not present circumstances as dramatic as this one.”

Vacated and Remanded

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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.