From SCOTUSblog:
A public defender in North Carolina, relying on President Bush's clemency ruling in the CIA leak case, urged the Supreme Court on Monday to reconsider its June 21 ruling upholding the 33-month prison sentence of Victor A. Rita, Jr. (Rita v. U.S., docket 06-5754). Going even further, Assistant Federal Public Defender Thomas N. Cochran of Greensboro urged the Court to reconsider its 2005 decisiion in U.S. v. Booker that salvaged the federal Sentencing Guidelines.by making them advisory, not mandatory. The Booker ruling, the petition argued, has fostered "disparate treatment" under the Guidelines. (The text of the petition, with attachments, can be found here.)
Like Libby, Rita was convicted of lying under oath and obstructing justice in a federal criminal investigation. Rita received a 33-month sentence, at the low end of the Guidelines range; Libby got a 30-month sentence at the low end. President Bush, however, found the Libby sentence to be "excessive." In the Rita case, the government lawyer argued in the Supreme Court that the 33-month sentence at issue there was reasonable, and a majority of the Court agreed.
It added: "Ironically, the President set forth in this [clemency] staement his conclusion that the district court in the Libby case rejected 'the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.' This was the precise, nearly verbatim, argument made by [Rita] in this case, and opposed by the President's subordinate, the Solicitor General."
Among other comments the President in barring any prison time for Libby, he said that critics had called the Libby sentence "harsh" and that it was "based in part on allegations never presented to the jury." The President also said that Libby was a first-time offender with years of public service. Those same points were raised in Rita's challenge to his 33-month sentence, the petition noted, but these arguments were "opposed by the Executive Branch every step of the way."
Like Libby, Rita was convicted of lying under oath and obstructing justice in a federal criminal investigation. Rita received a 33-month sentence, at the low end of the Guidelines range; Libby got a 30-month sentence at the low end. President Bush, however, found the Libby sentence to be "excessive." In the Rita case, the government lawyer argued in the Supreme Court that the 33-month sentence at issue there was reasonable, and a majority of the Court agreed.
It added: "Ironically, the President set forth in this [clemency] staement his conclusion that the district court in the Libby case rejected 'the consideration of factors that could have led to a sentence of home confinement or probation.' This was the precise, nearly verbatim, argument made by [Rita] in this case, and opposed by the President's subordinate, the Solicitor General."
Among other comments the President in barring any prison time for Libby, he said that critics had called the Libby sentence "harsh" and that it was "based in part on allegations never presented to the jury." The President also said that Libby was a first-time offender with years of public service. Those same points were raised in Rita's challenge to his 33-month sentence, the petition noted, but these arguments were "opposed by the Executive Branch every step of the way."
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