Yet another notable written opinion in a federal child porn downloading case

I received this afternoon yet another fascinating district court opinion concerning sentencing in a federal child porn downloading case. In US v. Beiermann, No. CR 07-4018-MWB (N.D. Iowa Feb. 24, 2009) (available for download below), the defendant faced a guideline sentence range of 210-262 months' imprisonment. In an opinion that runs over 50 pages(!), the district judge explains in detail why he imposed a sentence of 90 months.  Here is how the Beiermann opinion starts and ends:

This case, one of approximately 2,200 sentencings over which I have presided in nearly fifteen years on the federal bench, came before me for sentencing of a defendant who had been an Eagle Scout, with no criminal history points, for offenses involving possessing, receiving, transporting, and shipping child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A.  This case raises the question of the merits of the advisory United States Sentencing Guideline for defendants convicted of child pornography offenses, U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2, where, inter alia, this guideline purportedly is the result of congressional mandates rather than the United States Sentencing Commission’s exercise of its institutional expertise and empirical analysis.  Although I find that the defendant’s offenses are very serious, I nevertheless find, as have several other district court judges, that a sentence in strict accordance with the advisory guideline for child pornography offenses would be at odds with the “parsimony provision” of the federal sentencing statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), which directs me to impose a sentence that is “sufficient, but not greater than necessary” to accomplish the goals of sentencing. This memorandum, therefore, explains my rationale for the sentence imposed....

Recognizing that Beiermann has committed serious crimes, but that, for all of the reasons discussed in detail above, the applicable advisory sentencing guideline is not a reliable indicator of the Sentencing Commission’s perspective on a fair sentence — and, indeed, the advisory guideline sentence must be rejected both on categorical, policy grounds, even in a “mine-run” case, and certainly must be rejected on the basis of an individualized determination in this case — I find that a sentence that is “sufficient, but not greater than necessary” to accomplish the goals of sentencing, see 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), is 90 months of incarceration followed by 10 years of supervised release. Such a sentence is appropriate in light of all of the § 3553(a) factors and, therefore, is sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to accomplish the goals of sentencing.

Download Beierman.sentencing.final.022409