Life Sentence Stands Even Though District Court Had Thought Life Too Long

U.S. v. Adams, 2007 WL 4209 (1/2/07)(unpub'd) - The 10th refuses to reverse the defendant's life sentence for plain Booker error, even though the d.ct. said it would impose a 30 year sentence if the guidelines were found to be unconstitutional. Objective consideration of the § 3553(a) factors did not warrant a sentence below the life sentence called for by the guidelines. The 10th did not want to remand based on "particular, subjective sympathies of an individual judge." That would be awful, the 10th explains, because a "spate of such remands might impugn the fairness, integrity and public reputation of judicial proceedings."