Alan Dershowitz has weighed in on the Rubashkin sentencing issue which I briefed yesterday. In a two-paragraph letter this week to Judge Linda Reade, Dershowitz lays out his credentials as someone who was involved in developing the concept of "presumptive sentencing" and written on the subject. Then he renders his judgement:
As someone intimately familiar with the thinking of those behind the sentencing guidelines, I am confident that they would have been distressed by the government’s position in this case and its misuse of the guidelines to try to secure a sentence well in excess of what Mr. Rubashkin’s actions, as well as his personal background, deserve. Those who supported the enactment of sentencing guidelines contemplated fairness and equal treatment for similarly situated defendants. The goal was to "avoid unwarranting sentencing disparities." A single digit sentence would satisfy all the legitimate goals of the criminal justice system.
