Another notable child porn sentencing decision

I've previously noted the diversity of approaches and outcomes in federal child porn sentencings, in part because the the guidelines recommend sentences around the top of applicable statutory ranges.  A helpful reader sent along a notable new decision addressing these realities handed down last week by Judge Pratt (or Gall fame).  The opinion in US v. Johnson, No. 4:07-cr-00127 (N.D. Iowa Dec. 3, 2008) (available for download below), merits a full read.  Here is one of many notable passages:

Congress has created a fifteen-year window, between the statutory minimum (5 years) and maximum (20 years) sentences, within which this Court can penalize a convicted child pornographer. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252(a)(2), (b)(1). However, on account of Congress’ tinkering with the guidelines, the Commission now recommends that nearly all defendants be incarcerated near the twenty-year statutory maximum. Thus, strict adherence to the sentencing guidelines effective at the time of Defendant’s arrest, and even more so to those effective today, would make it difficult for the Court to consider the individualized factors that § 3553(a) requires.  Stated differently, the Court would struggle to differentiate between the punishment appropriate for the most and the least egregious acts of child pornographers.  As this Court noted in Shipley, the Court must consider the need to avoid unwarranted similarities in the punishment handed down to differently situated defendants.  560 F. Supp. 2d at 745-46.  The statute provides a broad range of punishments for the crime Defendant committed . If Congress does not want the courts to sentence individual defendants throughout that range based on the facts and circumstances of each case, then Congress should amend the sentencing statute, rather than manipulate the advisory guidelines, thereby blunting the effectiveness and reliability of the work of the Sentencing Commission.  While the Court has consulted the advice of the guidelines, the Court finds this advice is less reliable in the present case than in others where the guidelines are based on study and empirical data.

Download Johnson CP Sentencing Decision