United States v. Griffin

I agree with the majority that there is no procedural error in this case that warrants relief. Nevertheless, I would vacate Defendant Thomas Griffin, Jr.’s sixty-month above-guideline sentence as substantively unreasonable.

In imposing this sentence, the district court nearly doubled the usual sentence that the sentencing commission established for the “mine run” of cases involving offenses and defendants with criminal histories similar to Griffin’s. The district court varied upward to such an extent because the district court determined that Griffin, like his co-defendant Jordan Smith, was…