United States v. Ali

Ali, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, took his three small children out of the U.S. without his wife’s knowledge, intending to go to Pakistan. His wife had been granted custody of the children by a court order that prohibited Ali from taking the children out of Illinois. Intercepted in Turkey, he was returned to the U.S., where he was arrested, pleaded guilty to violating the parental-kidnapping statute, 18 U.S.C. 1204, and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the sentence, rejecting a challenge to an enhancement for Ali’s having substantially interfered with the administration of justice, U.S.S.G. 2J1.2(b)(2). Had that three-level increase not been imposed, the defendant’s guidelines range would have been 8-14 months rather than 15-21 months. The guidelines indicate that substantially interfering with justice includes causing an “unnecessary expenditure of substantial governmental or court resources.” The government did not introduce the result of any computation of the costs incurred as a result of the defendant’s absconding with the children. The court concluded that it could not say “that the costs are trivial, bearing in mind that the increase in the guidelines range imposed on the defendant by virtue of those costs was modest.” View "United States v. Ali" on Justia Law