{"id":19299,"date":"2013-01-07T17:30:09","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T22:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=19299"},"modified":"2013-01-07T17:32:42","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T22:32:42","slug":"sentence-not-improperly-enhanced-based-on-defendants-silence-seventh-circuit-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2013\/01\/sentence-not-improperly-enhanced-based-on-defendants-silence-seventh-circuit-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Sentence Not Improperly Enhanced Based on Defendant\u2019s Silence, Seventh Circuit Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"

At sentencing, defendants are expected to express remorse for their crimes. \u00a0Indeed, the defendant who fails to impress the judge with the sincerity of his contrition is apt to face a longer sentence on that basis. \u00a0But what if the defendant chooses to say nothing at all at sentencing? \u00a0On the one hand, a judge might infer a lack of remorse from the defendant\u2019s silence. \u00a0But, on the other, there seems some tension between penalizing a defendant\u2019s failure to speak and the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.<\/p>\n

The Seventh Circuit addressed this tension earlier today in\u00a0United States v. Keskes\u00a0<\/em><\/a>(No. 12-1127) (Tinder, J.). \u00a0Convicted of mail fraud, Keskes apparently declined the opportunity to allocute at his sentencing. \u00a0The district judge then made note of this in finding a lack of remorse and increasing Keskes\u2019 sentence on that basis. \u00a0On appeal, Keskes argued that the sentence violated his right to remain silent. \u00a0The Seventh Circuit, however, affirmed.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This was not a sweeping holding, and the court\u2019s opinion left open the possibility that in other circumstances the Fifth Amendment might be violated by penalizing a defendant\u2019s silence at sentencing. \u00a0For one thing, since Keskes did not timely object to his sentence enhancement, his appeal was evaluated under the deferential plain-error standard. \u00a0For another, the court emphasized some specific facts of his case:<\/p>\n

Keskes did not assert his Fifth Amendment privilege at the sentencing hearing. Had he done so, he would have alerted the court to the fact that his silence should be viewed as an exercise of his constitutional right rather than a lack of remorse. And as in\u00a0Johnson<\/em>, 903 F.2d at 1090, where the court explicitly recognized the defendants\u2019 right not to acknowledge their crimes, the district judge here expressly stated that Keskes did not have to address the court at sentencing.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the district court identified other factors besides Keskes\u2019s silence that reflected a lack of remorse: \u201cafter being convicted at trial, [Keskes] has still refused\u00a0to acknowledge his responsibility for his crime and argued in his sentencing memorandum that he did not know the merchandise he received was stolen.\u201d The record supports these findings. (24-25)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Keskes\u2019 appeal raised a number of additional objections to his conviction and sentence, but none gained any more traction than did the Fifth Amendment issue.<\/p>\n

Cross posted at Life Sentences Blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At sentencing, defendants are expected to express remorse for their crimes. \u00a0Indeed, the defendant who fails to impress the judge with the sincerity of his contrition is apt to face a longer sentence on that basis. \u00a0But what if the defendant chooses to say nothing at all at sentencing? \u00a0On the one hand, a judge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,74,122,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-federal-sentencing","category-public","category-seventh-circuit","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}