This column reports on several significant, representative decisions handed down recently in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Jack B. Weinstein imposed an exceptionally lenient sentence on a defendant who had suffered losses from the chaos in Syria. Judge Arthur D. Spatt explained the requirements of a complaint in admiralty that would allow defendant to implead a third party under Rules 14(c) and 9(h). And Judge Pamela K. Chen addressed the circumstances in which claims of fiduciary breach may be asserted by a mortgagor against a mortgage servicer.
Leniency in Sentencing
In United States v. Al Sabsabi, 14 CR 583 (EDNY, June 16, 2016), Judge Weinstein explained the reasons for a lenient sentence based largely on the hardships suffered by defendant, a recent immigrant from Syria, resulting from the civil war in that country. The court’s Statement of Reasons for Sentence exemplifies the latitude available to impose a just sentence in light of the general provisions of 18 U.S.C. §3553(a), relating (among other things) to the purposes of sentencing and “the history and characteristics of the defendant,” without being unduly restricted to the detailed offense and offender characteristics set forth by the Sentencing Commission in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
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