United States v. Perez

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

WEINSTEIN, District Judge.

The question posed on sentencing is whether this despondent and impecunious twenty-five year old woman, who has just experienced the sudden and unexpected death of her only child, a son born while she was in custody after her arrest for dealing in crack, may be sentenced to prison for a period less than the guidelines require — a range of 41 to 51 months. The answer is yes.

A downward departure is authorized when there is a “mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in…