Would John Q citizen get 30 months?

Question

If it were you or I to lie to Congress, the FBI, the CIA etc. Would we get only 30 months? Or would we be hung out to dry? and would we get up to 2 months before we had to report, or be led from the court house in handcuffs if found guilty?

Answer 1

Of course not. The average Joe would have been found guilty of outing a covert CIA agent and convicted of treason, not perjury. In that case the penalty is death.

In Bush's America access to "justice" depends entirely on your access to powerul friends.

Answer 2

Well, actually, Libby's sentence is dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, and although the guidelines are now "voluntary" (in the wake of a famous supreme court case called Booker), they are still closely followed. They set rigorous calculations for the level of offense, any aggravating factors, the person's criminal history, and any mitigating factors (such as cooperation with the government). Once this is all calculated, the court arrives at a particular, Guidelines-mandated "range" and the Court can choose any sentence within that range.

The information I understand is that Libby was NOT sentenced to the bottom of the applicable Guidelines calculation (which many, many defendants are). Thus, you or I would probably get a very comparable sentence (assuming that, like Libby, you or I didn't have any other criminal history, and that we both went to trial and were convicted).

http://www.ussc.gov/guidelin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Sentencing_Guidelines

As far as not having to report, in MOST non-violent crimes, judges have the option of allowing a defendant to "self surrender" to prison. There are three advantages.
(1) The prisoner doesn't have to be incarcerated in local detention facilities and carted around all over the place, which usually costs more money than prison.
(2) The Bureau of Prisons can spend more time reviewing the file to determine which institution is most fitting for the prisoner (called the "designation process"). When incarcerated, the BOP must make the designation more quickly and may not take all the right factors into account.
(3) The Defendant, besides having time to get his affairs in order before serving his sentence, will be viewed as less of a security risk, and so he will likely get placed in a less secure facility (which of course is helpful for the defendant but also helpful for the BOP, because it's cheaper to house defendants in less secure facilities).

MOST federal judges WILL allow a defendant who qualifies for self-surrender to do so because of these advantages for the defendant and for the system, unless the prosecutor believes that they're a flight risk.

So, Libby wasn't treated that differently from other criminals who would commit a similar crime with a similar criminal history. Actually, the judge was fairly harsh, requiring him to serve his sentence right away, rather than "staying it pending appeal" (which the Court can do if it believes there's a genuine appealable issue... Martha Stewart originally asked for this, but later withdrew it, just to get everything over with.)

Good to know that SOMETIMES justice can be blind, eh?

Answer 3

well if you think about it 30 months is a pretty harsh sentence. And since there is no parole in the federal system he will have to serve 85 percent of it. Most non violent low risk people that are sentenced to a federal institution are given time sometimes 3 to 4 months before they have to report.

Answer 4

Wineboy, get a clue. Libby was convicted of having a faulty memory about a crime that never occurred and was put in front of a grand jury 5 times in an attempt to get him to contradict his recollection of events by an over-zealous prosecutor. Libby did not "out" Plame, and in reality, no one did. She did not qualify as a covert agent according to the law that was supposedly broken. She was a well know Langley desk jockey. In fact, no law was broken until Fitzpatrick started the investigation. And the only "crime" was not recalling specific events thouroughly enough for Fitzpatrick. Total witch hunt and farce.

Answer 5

John Q would marry Suzy Q, and a few years later they would have a bunch of little Q-Berts running all over the place.

Answer 6

No and he needs a pardon and to have learned a lesson. The majority of candidates moved away from him last night at the President Reagan seance, ie. Presidential debate.
Those men can call him up more than one with a crystal ball.

Answer 7

Its hard to say.

It seems to me that people should be incensed at Cheney for allowing Scooter to be the goat for this Administration.

Cheney should man-up and admit that he directed the leak.

Personally, I think the sentence is ridiculous and solves nothing.

Answer 8

John Q Citizen wouldn't be set up for perjury, where there was no underlying crime.

Answer 9

Please are you this naive.......