United States v. McMillian, No. 13-3577 (7th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseThe defendant recruited a 19- year-old, two 16-year-old girls, and a 17-year-old by false promises of love and money, as well as by violence, and transported them across state lines to engage in prostitution. He was convicted of four counts of violating 18 U.S.C. 1591(a). If the recruit has not attained the age of 18 years the defendant is to be imprisoned “for not less than 10 years or for life.” As to the older girl, the government proved that the defendant used “force, threats of force, fraud, [or] coercion” against her.. The sentencing range for that offense is 15 years to life. His guidelines range was life imprisonment, but the judge imposed a below-guideline sentence of 30 years. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the conviction, rejecting an argument that section 1591 reaches only involuntary prostitution akin to slavery and not “ordinary” pimping and pandering. The court vacated the sentence, noting that the district judge apparently did not know that the guidelines range had changed over the course of the defendant’s illegal activity and was “casual” about conditions of supervised release.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.