House Republicans File Brief for Mandatory Minimum Sentence

Adam Walsh Act Sentences: Are they too long?

House Reps: Lamar Smith, Eric Cantor, Mike Pence, F. James Sensenbrenner Jr, Elton Gallegly, Daniel E. Lungren, Ted Poe, Thomase J. Rooney, Gregg Harper

Note: I cannot believe these Congressmen (one of which orchestrated the writing of the Adam Walsh Act behind closed doors denying other Congressmen input) are trying to get the court to agree that, the same sentence for a "completed act" should be given to someone who "attempts, but does not complete the act." That is nothing more than vindictiveness, but isn't that what AWA is all about.


2-18-2009 National:

A group of House Republicans filed a brief Wednesday challenging a federal District Court's ruling that a 30-year mandatory minimum prison sentence was a cruel and unusual punishment for a man convicted of crossing state lines to have sex with a minor.

That automatic mandatory minimum prison sentence was included in the Adam Walsh Act passed by Congress to combat child sex abuse. But in September 2008, Judge Beverly B. Martin of the Northern District of Georgia ruled that penalty was unconstitutional as applied to Kelly Farley, a 39-year-old Texas man convicted of making plans to molest a 10-year-old girl.

In the brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, the GOP lawmakers say they "are particularly concerned with the lack of respect and improper deference afforded to Congress by the district court in the case" and suggest the lower court's ruling "threatens to abridge Congress' authority to impose punishment that it deems appropriate to the corresponding offense."

The brief was signed by seven Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee as well as Mike Pence, a former committee member who is now the chairman of the Republican Conference, and Eric Cantor, the Minority Whip.

This was not the first provision of the Adam Walsh Act that's been knocked down by a federal judge. Last year, a District Court judge in Florida ruled the federally-mandated sex offender registry database was an unconstitutional violation of the Commerce Clause.

Read the Republican lawmakers' brief here: U S v Farley Amicus Brief.pdf

..News Source.. by Legal Beat