The Kenneth Miller Sentence

Judge Sessions hands down a 21- to 27-month prison sentence

Judge William Sessions decided Ken Miller should spend 21-27 months in prison, but will not serve time until an appeal is heard.

Pray for Ken, yes.

But don’t forget that his wife and children need our prayers as well.

As do Lisa and Isabella Miller. And the Nicaraguan Brotherhood.

Oh, and skip the ill-will and evil speech against the judge, the prosecutors, Janet Jenkins, and the rest of those in the opposition.

I posted the above at 2:35 pm Pacific. Now, about 30 minutes later, I’m adding this update from MillerCase.org:

We are delighted to report that Ken is with his family again and is about to head back for VA. Our God is GOOD! Ken has been sentenced to 27 months, but the judge granted a stay of the sentence until the appeal regarding venue is heard and ruled on. This could potentially be several years. Until then, we are thrilled to have our dear brother, husband, and father back with us.

I don’t know why it doesn’t say 21-27 months, but I’m sure they’ll clarify that later.

6 thoughts on “The Kenneth Miller Sentence”

  1. the reason why it’s 27 months is that the judge elected to sentence Ken to the maximum sentence that is provided in the guideline. the judge did not sentence Ken to 21 to 27 months but out of a range of 21 to 27 months provided by the sentencing guideline, the judge picked 27.

    Reply
    • Thank you, Robert, for the clarification! News stories I’ve been seeing through the late afternoon and evening speak only of a 27-month sentence. The early breaking reports were stating 21-27 months.

      Reply
    • I don’t know. I’d understood that the prosecution wanted three years. But I’ve read (post-sentencing) that Judge Sessions imposed the maximum allowed by law: 27 months.

      Maybe that means the prosecution wanted an illegal sentence. :mrgreen: Actually, I’m sure there’s a better explanation. 😉

      Reply
      • this is just what happens normally in a criminal procedure. the prosecution tries to get the grand jury to indict on as many charges as they can plausibly bring. then they try to scare the defendant into pleading to a subset of those charges in return to dropping others. when that doesn’t work and the case goes to trial, the prosecution will try to get the judge to keep as many charges and counts as possible, but often the judge whittles the charge list down to a more concise list for the jury to consider. then the prosecution tries to get the jury to convict on as many charges and counts as they can possibly get the jury to convict on (because if the case goes to appeal, then they might be able to trade with the defendant an agreement to accept the conviction on some if the prosecution agrees to drop others before any appeal, so that they can get on with the dispensing of justice). good defense lawyers will use this fact and try to get a good deal for their client.
        so then after all possible dealing and negotiation is done, the prosecution will try to persuade the judge to hand down as stiff sentence as possible knowing that the judge will likely apply some compromise between what the prosecution asks for and what the defense asks for. in doing this, there is the consideration of aggravating circumstances (that increase the seriousness of the crime and can literally add “points” to the class or category and make the range of possible sentences more severe) or mitigating circumstances (that might decrease the sentence).

        Reply
      • in Ken’s case, there were two issues that the prosecution brought up to try to increase the sentence. if they had persuaded the judge of both, the range of sentence would have been (if i recall correctly), 30 to 36 months, and that was what the prosecution was calling for. the judge accepted one argument (that the “crime” was extensively planned), but rejected the other (something about causing unduly difficult and expensive investigation due to the international nature of the “crime”). the end result was a sentencing guideline of 21 to 27 months and the judge gave Ken the maximum within that guideline.

        i have to comment in two comments because your page here has limited space and i could not see or hit the “Post Comment” button with the longer single comment.

        Reply

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