Two notable Eighth Circuit sentencing wins for federal prosecutors

Two rulings from the Eighth Circuit today reflect the reality that federal prosecutors still seem to prevail more often than not in tough sentencing appeals.  Here are links and unofficial summaries from ,the circuit's official opinion page:

US v. Femsteer, No. 06-2059 (8th Cir. July 3, 2008) (available here):

On remand from the Supreme Court of the United States for further consideration under Gall.  The district court committed procedural error and abused its discretion in sentencing defendant to 120 months because, in attempting to explain its reasons for varying downward 240 months from the bottom of the applicable Guidelines range, the court gave significant weight to irrelevant factors (defendant's age, the absence of a weapon in his prior crimes and his completion of probation) and failed to support the extent of its variance with sufficient justifications.

US v. Dodds, No. 07-3403 (8th Cir. July 3, 2008) (available here):

District court carefully considered the factors set out in 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(a), and defendant's sentence was not unreasonable; assuming, without deciding that the government misrepresented defendant's relevant conduct at sentencing, there is no evidence that the court considered those statements, and they are not grounds for resentencing.

A defendant did prevail on a sentencing issue, however, in US v. Anderson, No. 07-1181 (8th Cir. July 3, 2008) (available here), where the panel turned away the government complaints about the unreasonableness of a below-guideline sentencing in a white-collar case.