Ninth Circuit upholds 159-year mandatory term of imprisonment

With thanks to Howard for the tip, I see the Ninth Circuit has today upheld in US v. Hungerford, No. 05-30500 (9th Cir. Oct. 13, 2006) (available here), a woman’s 159-year federal sentence for various robbery convictions.  The facts suggest that the defendant was a lesser “Bonnie” who helped her “Clyde” carry out numerous armed robberies.  In a concurring opinion, Judge Stephen Reinhardt notes that the the defendant is a “mentally disturbed woman with no prior criminal record” who “never touched a gun.” 

Judge Reinhardt’s opinion is a fascinating attack on mandatory minimum sentencing, with many notable passages.  Here is one such passage:

[I]t is difficult to escape the conclusion that the current mandatory sentencing laws have imposed an immensely cruel, if not barbaric, 159-year sentence on a severely mentally disturbed person who played a limited and fairly passive role in several robberies during which no one was physically harmed.

Too bad for the defendant that she was not also required to wear a sign in public saying “I am a thief,” since then there might be sustained opposition from others in the legal academy.