Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Sixth Circuit "reasonableness of sentence" decision

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the sentences of two defendants who had plead guilty to coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purposes of producing visual depictions of that conduct, and possession of child pornography. ( Decision)

Katherine Pratt and Walter Vowell, her live-in boyfriend at the time of the offenses, on three separate occasions made videotapes of Vowell sexually molesting Pratt’s then eight-year-old daughter while she ran the camera. Both plead guilty in district court. Pratt was sentenced to three years in prison and lifetime supervised release thereafter; Vowell was sentenced to 65 years in prison and lifetime supervised release.. They appealed their respective sentences, challenging the procedural and substantive reasonableness of them.

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