A Kafkaesque federal sentencing story

I have now had a chance to review the Second Circuit’s decision in US v. Pabon-Cruz, No. 03-1457 (2d Cir. Dec. 3, 2004) (mentioned here), and the only fitting adjective for the case is Kafkaesque. 

Though the history of the case, not to mention the circuit court’s interpretation of a federal sentencing statute, has too many twists and turns to recount here, Pabon-Cruz highlights substantively and procedurally how bewildering federal sentencing can be.  Howard Bashman provided the essentials of the case here, and the bizarre upshot now is that US District Judge Gerard Lynch — in a case which he described as “without question the worst case of [his] judicial career” due in part to the inconsistencies in federal sentencing of child pornography offenses — has discretion to impose a fine or a 10-year imprisonment term but nothing in between.