United States v. Lee

Lee was sentenced to life imprisonment. His sentence was reduced for his substantial assistance to the government and was later reduced to 112 months because of a retroactive Sentencing Guidelines change. After he was discharged, he began serving his supervised release. Lee missed numerous scheduled drug tests and probation meetings. He chased his girlfriend, Roland, down a flight of stairs and repeatedly kicked her after she fell. Lee fled, but was ultimately arrested. He called friends from jail, cajoling them to get Roland to change her story. The court found that Lee had violated the conditions of his supervised release. Lee argued that the battery was a state court misdemeanor and a state court “probably would have made both parties go to counseling.” The district court sentenced Roland to 30 months’ imprisonment, citing Lee’s numerous violations of supervised release leading up to the attack and the need to deter further criminal conduct and protect the public. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, noting that Lee did not argue that a longer sentence would unjustifiably subject him to harsher treatment than similarly situated defendants in the district court, Lee also complained that the district court failed to complete a form stating the reasons for his sentence. It is not clear that the court has an obligation to do so when revoking supervised release, but, in any case, Lee suffered no prejudice from the failure to complete this administrative task. View "United States v. Lee" on Justia Law