Posted on 08/16/2008 9:21:42 PM PDT by calcowgirl
A federal appeals court Friday threw out the 22-year sentence imposed on Algerian Ahmed Ressam for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium.
The three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to U.S. District Court in Seattle to recalculate a sentence for his conviction on nine felony counts. It was the second time the appellate court has scrapped Ressam's sentence.
The San Francisco-based panel noted that the U.S. Supreme Court reversal of its first decision to vacate the term failed to take into consideration recent federal sentencing guidelines on what constitutes a reasonable sentence outside the preset range for criminal offenses.
Ressam was arrested Dec. 14, 1999, at a ferry terminal in Port Angeles, Wash., after crossing from British Columbia, Canada, in a rented sedan with explosives in the trunk. He had been under surveillance by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for at least two years for known association with suspected Al Qaeda operatives.
(snip)
His 22-year sentence, including a 10-year minimum applied for carrying explosives during the commission of a felony, was imposed by District Judge John C. Coughenour in 2005. It was the middle ground between the 35 years requested by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the 12 1/2 years proposed by Ressam's federal public defenders.
Both prosecutors and defense lawyers appealed, leading to the 9th Circuit's initial ruling in January 2007 that the sentence should be vacated and recalculated because the sentencing guidelines requiring the aggravating multiplier were too open-ended.
The Supreme Court in May overruled the 9th Circuit, reinstating the full 22 years in an 8-1 ruling that the aggravating circumstance of carrying explosives was obviously related to Ressam's felonious action of trying to evade detection by U.S. Customs authorities . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The Circus Court is at it again.
Holy fing s.
You know, it’s a lot cheaper to just “dust” these terrorists when they are caught redhanded like this joker was. Also, cases like this really put a strain on those senile old bass turds in our Federal courts.
Boy that 2003 US invasion of Iraq even caused an Islamic nutjob to travel back in time in an attempt to wreck havoc at a millennium event...
Wasn’t this case cited by the Dims as the “proper” way to handle terrorism?
Wow! That is quite an archive of articles you have going there!
Nice work!
They also failed to sentence him to execution, which was the appropriate sentence.
I’m going to open a torch and pitchfork concession, I am.
Don’t know about that one. I didn’t follow the case that closely.
They should recalculate it to the maximum 35 years.
would have been different if he’d planned to bome something important, like the court house.
I think one of the last things dubya should do as president is fire the 9th circus judges. He can do that and it would really benefit the country and his legacy.
Something like that.
(Actually I was looking for the Larson cartoon with a guy holding a burned out torch and a thought bubble of the guy who sold it -with a guarantee- to him)...
That is me right about now. Quite the likeness.
I think the problem here is the federal sentencing guidelines, which unnecessarily intrude the authority of the trial courts for sentencing, making it difficult for everyone involved. The guidelines came about mainly in response to the courts’ reluctance to impose strong enough penalties (Congress felt) in support of the War on Drugs. State court judges and juries have much more freedom to arrive at a just verdict.
Thank you calcowgirl.
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