United States v. Tiffany Bernard, No. 21-3874 (8th Cir. 2022)
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The district court had strong views about what charges fit Defendant’s crimes. It rejected both her plea agreement and a motion by the government to dismiss four of the five counts in the indictment. The Eighth Circuit held that the latter ruling went too far, and reversed and remanded with instructions to grant the government’s motion.
The court explained that here, the district court merely “disagreed with the prosecutor’s assessment of what penalty the defendant ought to face.” Rather than addressing whether the prosecutor acted in bad faith, the court just listed the reasons it thought Defendant was getting off too easy: she was “very dangerous” and “by far the most culpable”; the victim suffered life-threatening injuries; and a “conviction for robbery alone strip[ped] the [c]ourt of any ability to sentence [her] to a just punishment.” These may be important factors to consider at sentencing, but they are not reasons to interfere with the government’s charging decisions, no matter how much the court may disagree with them.
Court Description: [Stras, Author, with Grasz and Kobes, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. The court had appellate jurisdiction over an order denying the government's motion to dismiss charges under the collateral-order doctrine; the district court erred in denying the government's motion to dismiss some of the charges based on its disagreement as to what penalty the defendant ought to face; while the factors the court listed as to why it thought defendant was getting off too easy may be important factors at sentencing, they are not reasons to interfere with the government's charging decisions, no matter how much the district court may disagree with them; reversed and remanded with instructions to grant the government's motion to dismiss four counts of the five counts in the matter.
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