United States v. Hammond, No. 12-1487 (8th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pleaded guilty to one count of enticement of a minor for the purpose of engaging in prohibited sexual activity and one count of enticement of a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's denial of a downward variance from the Guidelines range of 235 to 293 months. The court concluded that the district court considered the relevant factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) and reached a substantively reasonable conclusion. Moreover, the district court's decision to place greater emphasis in this case on factors that favored a sentence within the advisory range than on other section 3553(a) factors that might favor a more lenient sentence was a permissible exercise of the considerable discretion available to a sentencing court. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Criminal case - Sentencing. District court properly weighed defendant's mistaken belief regarding the age of the victim in applying the 3553(a) factors, and did not err in determining it did not outweigh the other sentencing factors, such as seriousness of the offense, the need to protect the public and the need to deter future crimes.
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