Presto, never chango … lifetime supervision approved by Sixth Circuit

The Sixth Circuit covers a lot of post-Booker sentencing ground today in US v. Presto, No. 05-6888 (6th Cir. Aug. 14, 2007) (available here), in the course of affirming a district court’s imposition of lifetime supervised release for receipt and possession of child pornography.  Here is one of many interesting aspects of a seemingly simple case:

Defendant also argues that his sentence is unreasonable because it would result in significant financial cost to the government, and because “the limitless period of mandatory participat[ion] in a sex offender treatment [program] with polygraph and plethysmograph testing will result in substantial costs to [defendant] for the remainder of his life.”  Appellant’s Brief at 23. He provides no legal support for the idea that a sentence is unreasonable if it would result in significant cost to a defendant or the government, and the cost of supervision and testing is not a factor the district court is required to consider under § 3553(a).  Thus, the cost of compliance does not render defendant’s sentence unreasonable.