United States Seventh Circuit

Sentencing of a defendant convicted of receiving child pornography under U.S.S.G. section 3C1.1 is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in applying the two-level obstruction of justice enhancement in finding that defendant's repeated contacts with a minor victim in violation of his pretrial release order was intended to hamper prosecution; 2) defendant was not entitled to receive an additional point reduction for acceptance of responsibility as the court could not consider the additional one point reduction in the absence of a motion from the government under section 3E1.1(b); 3) district court did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause in using the 2006 guidelines rather than the 2003 Guidelines Manual, which was in effect at the time the crime was committed, as defendant's argument is foreclosed by holding in US. Demaree, 459 F.3d 791 (7th Cir. 2006); and 4) the sentence was not unreasonable as defendant did not rebut the presumption that the district court did not abuse its discretion and in light of the extremely aggravated circumstances in the case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/21/2009
• Published 08/21/2009

Judges

• SYKES, Circuit Judge., Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and ROVNER and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Seventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Julie B. Ruder (argeud), Office of U.S. Attorney, Chicago, IL, for Plaintiss-Appellee., Daniel T. Cook (argued), Office of Federal Public Defender, Springfield, IL, Jonathan E. Hawley, Chief Assistant Public Defender, Richard H. Parsons, Office of Federal Public Defender, Peoria, IL, for Defendant-Appellant.