In U.S. v. Owens, No. 06-11448 (Sept. 15, 2006), the Court rejected the argument that a sentence was unreasonable because the district court failed to consider the sentences given to other defendants in the case.
The Court noted that the district court had stated that it thought the sentence was reasonable and it had consulted the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. The district court acknowledged that Owens’s sentence was longer than some of others arising out of the same fraudulent scheme, but specifically found that other § 3553(a) factors outweighed this problem. The Court found the sentence reasonable, noting that Owens’s cooperation, while "admirable," did not "undo the harm he had caused."
