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August 1, 2013

Seventh Circuit, spliting 5-4, refuses to reconsider guideline error remedy after Peugh

A helpful reader alerted me to this Seventh Circuit order denying rehearing in US v. Hawkins and this set of opinions from judges on the panel explaining how the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Peugh enters the analysis.  I fear that the legal issues being debated here are hard to unpack (though they are fascinating), and thus I will here just reprint the first paragraph from Judge Rovner's dissent from the denial of rehearing, which helps spotlight the issue being debated:

Since July 25, 2003, Bernard Hawkins has been sitting in a Federal Correctional Institution, where he is scheduled to remain for approximately twelve-and-ahalf years.  It is uncontroverted that the district court erred when it calculated his sentence using the career offender enhancement, and had the court not erred, his calculated sentencing range would have been approximately ten times less — somewhere in the range of 15-21 months. Yet despite the known and conceded error, we are told that for the sake of principles of finality, Hawkins must remain in prison for the entire 151-month sentence. My dissent to the panel opinion elucidated the reasons why I believe this was the wrong result. In the interim, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Peugh v. United States, 133 S.Ct. 2072 (2013), addressing the question of how appellate courts should view the effect of errors that sentencing courts make when they select the incorrect United States Sentencing Guideline as a starting point. In light of that decision, and for the reasons articulated in the dissent to the panel opinion, I believe it is our duty to reconsider Mr. Hawkins’ case and therefore I respectfully dissent from the denial of rehearing.

August 1, 2013 at 02:53 PM | Permalink

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Comments

That type reasoning makes Bastille Day easier to understand.

Docile The Non-Violent Terrorist

Posted by: Just Plain Jim | Aug 1, 2013 2:58:52 PM

Well lets see now:
He should of been sentenced to 15-21 months, but since the district court screwed up, you get 151 months.. Seems reasonable enough to me...After all it is close enough for government work, right...

Who was the Judge, our very own Jack Camp (higher than most), so rather than correct it, he gets to spend an extra 13 yrs in the slammer, less the vast nbr of good time days, of coarse...and we get to pay for it.
This is their reason why, even the Circuit court says its ok.

Circuits reason why:
Yet despite the known and conceded error, we are told that for the sake of principles of finality, Hawkins must remain in prison for the entire 151-month sentence.

For the sake of finality... The standard rule is if not plain Error...
These Bozos need to be taken to a High security joint for 5 yrs...and mixed in with the general population...Labled, Federal Judge and why they are there..

Posted by: MidWest Guy | Aug 1, 2013 4:57:03 PM

well for the sake for "finality" i think he has every legal right to hurt or kill anyone he needs to since if he's been there since 2003 he has LONG finished the legal 21 month sentence. Then once out he also has the same legal right to kill off these govt fucktards on the court!

Posted by: rodsmith | Aug 1, 2013 10:00:14 PM

Judge Posner seems to have been in a less pragmatic mood than usual.

Posted by: Michael Drake | Aug 2, 2013 12:17:56 AM

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