Saying that the guideline range did not give proper consideration toward the idea of rehabilitation, a federal judge yesterday sharply departed from the recommended sentence in a child pornography case. Jake Smith, 24, of Mount Washington, was ordered to serve a two-year prison term for possessing 32 video files of child pornography. In pronouncing his sentence, the judge took away an enhancement built into the guidelines for using a computer to access child pornography, because he said, it’s almost like “double counting,” since the computer is now the method of choice for the crime. For several minutes from the bench, the judge talked about the ease with which child pornography can be accessed, and he questioned whether young people even know that looking at it is a crime. Though he reduced the sentence, Judge Diamond called possessing child pornography a serious crime that “promotes and patronizes an evil industry. Smith’s crime occurred even a few months later — after a change in federal sentencing guidelines — the prison term he would have faced would have been 78 to 97 months. read more

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