United States v. Bistline

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Bistline pled guilty to knowingly possessing 305 images and 56 videos of child pornography on his computer, many of which depicted 8- to 10-year-old girls being raped by adult men. His recommended Guidelines sentence was 63 to 78 months’ imprisonment. The district court sentenced Bistline to a single night’s confinement in lockup, plus 10 years’ supervised release. The Sixth Circuit vacated, noting that Bistline’s guidelines range should have been “the starting point” for considering the factors in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) and that the court was entitled to consider Bistline’s age, health, and family circumstances, but that those could not justify the sentence imposed. On remand, the district court again imposed a sentence of one day’s confinement and 10 years’ supervised release, stating: “If I have got to send somebody like Mr.Bistline to prison, I’m sorry, someone else will have to do it. I’m not going to do it.” The Sixth Circuit vacated and remanded for reassignment and resentencing. View "United States v. Bistline" on Justia Law