United States v. Brucker, No. 10-3057 (7th Cir. 2011)
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Defendant, age 62, entered a plea of guilty to attempting to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity (18 U.S.C. 2422(b)), and to attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor (18 U.S.C. 1470) and was sentenced to the statutory minimum sentence of 120 months' imprisonment. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Sentencing courts are bound by mandatory minimums. There is a rational basis for treating a cyber offender, who believed he had engaged in sexual activity with a minor, the same as a "real world" offender and for denying such an offender the "safety valve" available to nonviolent drug offenders.That a federal defendant may face harsher punishment than his state counterpart, or vice versa, does not raise equal protection concerns. The sentence did not violate the Eighth Amendment.
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