Effective district court elaboration of post-Rita realities
I have received (and provided for downloading below) an effective “sentencing memorandum” issued earlier this week by US District Judge Dan Polster in US v. Ortiz, No. 1:06-CR-417-004 (N.D. Ohio Aug. 14, 2007). In Oritz, Judge Polster throughtfully explains his reasoning for imposing a below-guideline sentence in a career offender drug case, and in so doing he takes stock of the state of federal sentencing law in the Sixth Circuit after Rita. Here is a key paragraph from Judge Polster’s work in Ortiz:
Therefore, when one considers the Sixth Circuit’s post-Rita line of decisions, along with the Rita opinion itself, it is clear that the district courts have tremendous sentencing discretion in the final determination of the sentence imposed. The sentencing courts are to consider the relevant § 3553(a) factors, the advisory Guideline range, and any other nonfrivolous arguments that each side may make, and indeed, may use the Guidelines as an advisory resource. Ultimately, however, the courts must impose a sentence in accord with § 3553(a)’s parsimony provision, and provide a reasoned explanation of the basis for the sentence.