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Major Seventh Circuit ruling permitting judges to vary from guidelines based on fast-track disparity

By Douglas A. Berman

The Seventh Circuit has a major post-Kimbrough ruling today in US v. Reyes-Hernandez, No. 09-1249 (7th Cir. Oct. 7, 2010) (available here), which gets started this way: The Supreme Court?s decision in Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85 (2007), taken together with other recent cases, has rekindled debate about whether sentencing disparities created by fasttrack programs can be considered by district court judges in non-fast-track districts when crafting individual sentences. We address that issue today. Because both cases present the same issue on appeal, we consolidate them for the purpose of our review. In the first case, Jaime Reyes-Hernandez pled guilty for illegally re-entering the United States after he had been removed twice following a conviction for the aggravated felony of robbery...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 07, 2010 (boomark / email).