Today's decision in United States v. Jenkins, --- F.3d ---, No. 14-4295-cr (2d Cir. 2017), is a must read for anyone handling CP cases. And it has great language in general.
The defendant went to trial on charges of possession and transportation of child pornography after he was found with a collection of child pornography on his laptop and thumb drive as he crossed the U.S.-Canada border on his way to a family vacation. He was convicted and the district court sentenced him (as a first offender) to 225 months in prison followed by 25 years of supervised release.
On appeal, the Second Circuit vacated the sentence as substantively unreasonable, even though it was within the the Guidelines range.
The opinion carefully dissects section 2G2.2 and its run-of-the-mill sentencing enhancements.
The Court noted, "[i]n 2014, for example, 95.9% of defendants sentenced under § 2G2.2 received the enhancement for an image of a victim under the age of 12, 84.5% for an image of sadistic or masochistic conduct or other forms of violence, 79.3% for an offense involving 600 or more images, and 95.0% for the use of a computer."
Moreover, "[s]ince the Commission has effectively disavowed § 2G2.2, it should be clearer to a district court . . . that this Guideline 'can easily generate unreasonable results.'"
The opinion also explains: "Additional months in prison are not simply numbers. Those months have exceptionally severe consequences for the incarcerated individual. They also have consequences both for society which bears the direct and indirect costs of incarceration and for the administration of justice which must be at its best when, as here, the stakes are at their highest."
Finally, the Court has a very helpful discussion on supervised release and its broad restrictions.
