United States v. Joel Thomas, Jr.

Joel Leoh Thomas, Jr., barely 24 years old when he was sentenced, will be 73 when he gets out of prison. How did a young man get half a century following a conviction for three bank robberies — two of which he wasn’t present for and none of which resulted in physical harm? The answer is as troubling as it is simple: The district judge misunderstood the scope of his discretion and therefore failed to impose a sentence that is substantively reasonable.

The record leaves no doubt that the district judge believed he lacked discretion to reduce Thomas’s sentence. This is what he said:

When all of…