Two for Tuesday from the Seventh Circuit on sentencing

The Seventh Circuit has handed down two notable and lengthy sentencing rulings today:

• US v. Carter, No. 07-2438 (7th Cir. Aug. 19, 2008) (available here)
• US v. Clark, No. 07-1297 (7th Cir. Aug. 19, 2008) (available here)

Though both rulings are meaty and important, the Carter case is the must-read of the pair.  In Carter, the panel affirm a below-guideline sentence of 24 months’ imprisonment as reasonable despite an applicable advisory guidelines range of 87 to 108 months’ imprisonment. Here are the panel’s concluding sentiments in Carter:

The record makes clear that the district court did not select the sentence arbitrarily, base the sentence on impermissible factors, fail to consider pertinent section 3553(a) factors or give an unreasonable amount of weight to any pertinent factor.  Its explanation for its sentence was sufficient to allow for meaningful appellate review and to promote the perception of fair sentencing and its reasoning adequately justified the extent of the variance from the advisory guidelines range.  See Omole, 523 F.3d at 697; see also Gall, 128 S. Ct. at 597.  We might have adhered to the guidelines or imposed a somewhat harsher sentence had we been sitting as district judges. See Gall, 128 S. Ct. at 597.  Our review is not de novo, however.  Our authority is simply to determine if the sentence is legal and, in the circumstances of the case, reasonable in light of the statutory mandate contained in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a).  Given those limitations on our authority, the sentence of the district court must stand.