Sentencing Guidelines

The Oct. 1 editorial (“There Goes the Judge--Into Private Practice”) correctly lamented the departure of Judge J. Lawrence Irving from the federal bench; he will be greatly missed.

What followed was a diatribe against the federal sentencing guidelines without benefit of any understanding of the system or appreciation of the reasons why Congress adopted the new laws.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission was created by Congress because of its dual concern that there existed unjustified disparity in sentences imposed across America and that offender characteristics, such as status, sex and race, were allowed improperly to figure in setting sentences. In the Sentencing Reform Act, Congress directed that federal sentences should be determined primarily on the basis of two factors: seriousness of offense and the offender’s prior criminal record.

The main source of frustration which has been voiced repeatedly is the mandatory minimum sentences, which, again, Congress has enacted and made binding on every federal judge. In fact, Judge Irving’s complaint was made in large part in this context. “Pocket computer” justice, as coined by The Times, is catchy, but not prescribed by the guidelines. Objective criteria, such as the number of prior criminal convictions, are enumerated so as to require a judge to take into account the person’s criminal background or let her explain why those factors should not figure in the sentence. A judge may depart from the guidelines in atypical cases to impose a sentence either more or less severe than the guidelines would predict.

Finally, plea rates have not fallen, according to monitoring statistics. It is true, however, that it takes longer to study a pre-sentence report and the newly required written statements submitted by the respective sides about the sentence choice. The guidelines do compel grave thought about what is a proper sentence for an individual, given that the crime is one of federal proportion.

The system is new, but one might think The Times would laud these goals, aims and results.

ALICEMARIE H. STOTLER

U.S. District Judge

Santa Ana