U.S. v. Blagojevich

Dist. Ct. did not err in re-sentencing defendant-former Governor to 168-month term of incarceration on corruption-in-political-office-related crimes, even though five out of 18 counts of defendant’s original conviction had been vacated subsequent to imposition of original 168-month sentence. Dist. Ct. could properly impose same sentence based on gravity of defendant’s offenses and need to deter other public officials from committing similar offenses, and instant sentence fell within applicable sentencing guideline range. Ct. rejected defendant’s argument that: (1) instant sentence was unlawfully high, where Ct. of Appeals had stated in original opinion that 168-month sentence was not unlawfully high in view of vacated convictions; (2) Dist. Ct. improperly rejected defendant’s evidence that he was model prisoner, where said prison conduct did not show that defendant had fundamentally changed his attitude toward corrupt dealing; (3) he was entitled to lower sentence in view of vacated convictions, where Ct. of Appeals found that vacated convictions did not affect original sentencing guideline range, and where there had been no finding that defendant was innocent of vacated counts; and (4) instant sentence represented unwarranted disparity compared with other sentences.