mrshl | blog

Guidelines pushed to the sidelines

This post by University of North Carolina law professor Eric Muller does a good job of illustrating what’s really wrong with Scooter Libby’s commuted sentence. A pardon would at least be consistent with a belief that he was not guilty. Bush, though, has said he doesn’t disagree with jury’s verdict. He simply thinks a 30 month sentence is too harsh. He points to the probation office’s recommendation of a lesser sentence as proof that the judge was to heavy handed.

But Bush’s commutation eliminated the prison sentence altogether. Erasing the sentence is incompatible with the Bush administration’s previously rigid support for the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. For more on why that’s particularly galling, check out sentencing expert Doug Berman’s analysis of the Libby case.