U.S. v. Hancock

Dist. Ct. did not commit procedural error when sentencing defendant to 120-month term of incarceration on child pornography distribution charge, where defendant alleged that Dist. Ct. failed to adequately address his mitigation arguments that included claim that offense level increase did not account for modern computers’ “fast and easy” ability to amass and distribute large collection of pornography. Instant argument was in form of blanket attack against Guidelines’ policy, which Dist. Ct. was not required to discuss, and record otherwise showed that Dist. Ct. did consider such argument. Dist. Ct. also considered but rejected defendant’s claim that: (1) his possession of heinous images should not be viewed as aggravating factor; and (2) his sentence represented unwarranted disparity, where defendant failed to identify offender or group of offenders who received more lenient sentence despite committing similar or more serious misconduct.