United States v. Sabillon-Umana

GORSUCH, Circuit Judge.

Sentencing someone to prison has to be one of the district judge’s toughest tasks. So much is at stake for the defendant, the victim, and the community. So much responsibility rests on the judge’s shoulders, along with the high expectation that the judge will wisely weigh things that cannot be easily weighed. How much punishment is enough to protect the public? To deter future wrongdoing? To reflect the gravity of the offense? And how much punishment suffices to accomplish all these things without verging on cold revenge or needless retribution? There’s rarely a single…