Noting the latest data showing reduced (but disparate) federal sentences for child porn downloaders

This new Wall Street Journal article, which is headlined "Judges Trim Jail Time for Child Porn: Data Show Trend Toward Leniency for People Who View Images but Aren't Molesters," provides the latest main-stream media coverage of a leading federal sentencing story that regular readers know all about.  Here is an excerpt:

More federal judges are showing leniency toward individuals who view child pornography but who aren't themselves molesters, according to recent data on prison sentences.

Judges are looking skeptically at prosecutors' requests to give 15- to 25-year sentences for viewing sexual images of minors, handing down more sentences of five to 10 years, or in some cases probation. The movement has been gaining steam over the past two years even as the Justice Department has made child pornography and other child-exploitation prosecutions a top priority, leading to more than 2,300 cases last year, the highest figure since the department began tracking the statistic.

"We've reached a critical momentum for change," said Troy Stabenow, a federal public defender in Missouri whose critique of child-pornography sentences has been cited by judges. "The recent sentences are signaling, as strongly as I have ever seen, that judges around the country think the current system is broken."...

In the 12 months ended September 2009, federal judges gave prison sentences below the guidelines in 44% of cases in which individuals obtained child pornography or shared it with others, up from 27.2% two years earlier, according to data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission, a federal agency that develops the guidelines. Those figures exclude cases in which judges gave lighter sentences at the prosecutors' request. In the same two-year period, the rate by which judges gave below-guideline sentences for all criminal cases rose to 16.9% from 12.5%.

Some judges who criticize the recommended sentences say they are the result of an unfair linking of child-porn users and sexual predators. While some child-porn viewers are accused or convicted of physical molestation, psychologists who treat sexual deviants say it is unclear whether most viewers of child pornography are likely to commit such acts. Many of the defendants convicted of downloading images said they would never molest a child.

The shift has upset advocates of abused children who say the sentences won't deter future misconduct. "There's a clear trend among judges to treat possession of child porn as if it's not serious, but these are crime-scene photos," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Mr. Allen says the dissemination of such images encourages behavior that hurts children, not least the production of those images.

Some child-porn viewers still get sentences of 15 or 20 years from judges who follow the guidelines. That's greater than punishments meted out to some child molesters and other violent criminals.... The split among the judiciary means that someone who receives a prison sentence of several years in one court could get a decades-long sentence in a different court.

Last month, J. Randal Hall, a federal judge in Augusta, Ga., sentenced a child-porn viewer to 20 years in prison. There was no evidence that the defendant, Roger Gambrel, who is in his mid-50s, physically abused children, said his lawyer, Jacque Hawk. "This amounted to a death sentence," Mr. Hawk said.

As regular readers know, these child porn sentencing issues have been building in intensity in the federal courts for a number of years, and last fall the US Sentencing Commission finally indicated that they would be re-examining the federal guidelines for child porn offenses.  However, the USSC's latest list of potential guideline amendments do not include and proposed modifications of the existing dysfunction guidelines, and thus these problems are likely to persist for quite sometime.

Just some related prior federal child porn prosecution and sentencing posts (going back to early 2008):

•  A new thoughtful child porn downloading opinion assailing images guideline enhancement
• Can downloading of child porn be blamed on post-traumatic stress disorder?
• "Federal judges argue for reduced sentences for child-porn convicts"
• Effective local reporting on realities and debates surrounding federal sentencing guidelines for child porn
• "Prosecutors seek nearly $200k for child porn victim"
• Effective new opinion discussing restitution in federal child porn possession cases
• Another thoughtful and notable district court opinion on restitution in child porn sentencing
• The latest (beneficial?) litigation front in child porn downloading battles
• Federal sentence for receiving child porn includes forfeiture of home
• Strong sentencing opinion noting disparities in federal child porn downloading cases
• Yet another notable written opinion in a federal child porn downloading case
• More examples of sentencing uncertainty surrounding federal child porn cases
• Acquitting and downloading some additional USSC priorities
• Judge Adelman operationalizes deconstructed child porn guidelines
• Thoughtful opinion focused on bad health as the basis for a below-guideline sentence