In 2007, Jose Padilla was convicted on charges of conspiracy and providing support to al Qaeda. He was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison.
Today, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke, who handed down his original sentence, re-sentenced Padilla to 21 years.
http://twitter.com/#!/ryanlcooper/status/509371056541691904 http://twitter.com/#!/wsvn/status/509371657610616832More from the Miami Herald:
In 2011, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Padilla should have received harsher punishment reflecting his extensive criminal record. The appellate court found that Judge Cooke “unreasonably discounted” Padilla’s criminal history before lowering a potential 30-year-to-life sentence.
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The appellate court, in an opinion written by Chief Judge Joel F. Dubina and joined by Judge William H. Pryor, sided with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami. Prosecutors, who were seeking life imprisonment for Padilla, appealed Cooke’s sentence of about 17 1/2 years. They argued the judge’s prison term was about 13 years below the low end of the sentencing guidelines: 30 years.
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“[Cooke] attached little weight to Padilla’s extensive criminal history, gave no weight to his future dangerousness, compared him to criminals who were not similarly situated, and gave unreasonable weight to the condition of his pre-trial detention [in the Naval brig],” Dubina wrote.