United States of America, Appellee/cross-Appellant v. Casey Marie Yirkovsky, Appellant/cross-Appellee

I respectfully dissent from the majority’s reversal of the district court’s sentencing reductions. The majority’s treatment of this case reflects a disturbing trend toward increasingly punitive sentencing. Moreover, it disregards the district court’s discretion to fashion a sentence that, after having the opportunity to hear all the evidence and evaluate the defendant through her words and actions, would better serve both the defendant and society.

A simple survey of recent appeals from criminal sentences bears out this trend. Since May of 2000, the government appealed twenty-five cases in…