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Can/should a sentencing judge increase a drug sentence because a defendant is an illegal alien?

By Douglas A. Berman

The question in the title of this post splits an Eighth Circuit panel today in US v. Loaiza-Sanchez, No. 09-2999 (8th Cir. Sept. 22, 2010) (available here).  Here is how the majority opinion starts: Hector Loaiza-Sanchez and Jose Luis Juarez-Gonzalez pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute and possessing with intent to distribute a substantial quantity of methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A), and 846.  After determining an advisory guidelines sentencing range of 168 to 210 months for each defendant, the district court concluded based upon the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) that a sentence within that range was appropriate.  It then imposed a sentence above the bottom of the range because each defendant committed his offenses while in the country illegally...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 22, 2010 (boomark / email).