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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: Brumar89 who wrote (912751)1/7/2016 6:07:26 PM
From: Wharf Rat  Read Replies (2) of 1577462
 
"ridiculously huge"

They served less than the mandatory minimum sentence.

The Hammonds' troubles began in June 2012, when a jury convicted them of "maliciously" setting fire to large swaths of federal land in 2001 and 2006 -- a federal crime carrying a mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison.
The case would have been over had the trial court imposed the five years of imprisonment that the law mandates. Instead, the judge cited the Eighth Amendment -- which bars "cruel and unusual punishment" -- and second-guessed Congress, concluding that the mandatory sentence was "grossly disproportionate" to the offense. He proceeded to sentence Dwight Hammond to three months and his son to a year and one day in prison.

Federal prosecutors appealed, arguing what they often argue when mandatory minimum sentences are at stake: that the law is the law and that judges have no discretion to deviate from it.

The 9th Circuit agreed and essentially ruled the Hammonds' lesser sentences to be illegal.

huffingtonpost.com
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