A federal judge in Washington, D.C., complained last week that prosecutors seem to be seeking disproportionate sentences for nonviolent offenders who entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
www.abajournal.com
March 31, 2022
"A federal judge in Washington, D.C., complained last week that prosecutors seem to be seeking disproportionate sentences for nonviolent offenders who entered the
U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. U.S. District Judge
Trevor McFadden of the District of Columbia complained that prosecutors recommended more jail time for nonviolent Jan. 6 defendants than for a protester who disrupted the confirmation hearing for
then-U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh.
The Washington Post
has the story.
McFadden spoke last Wednesday as he sentenced 37-year-old florist Jenny Cudd of Midland, Texas, to two months of probation and a $5,000 fine. She has also paid $500 in restitution.
Courthouse News Service and
WUSA9 also have stories on Cudd’s sentencing.
Cudd had
worn a bulletproof sweatshirt to the Capitol and had declared on a Facebook livestream, “Hell yes, I am proud of my actions.”
The federal government had sought a sentence of 75 days in jail after Cudd agreed to plead guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted area or building.nThe government had recommended 10 days in prison for the Kavanaugh protester, even though he had 14 prior arrests and accidentally knocked a chair into a bystander during his arrest,
McFadden said... The average sentence sought by prosecutors was a two-month jail term. Eight of the defendants got a prison sentence, and in half the cases, the sentence was 30 days or less.
Before the Capitol breach,
McFadden said, he couldn’t remember seeing a nonviolent, misdemeanor defendant “sentenced to serious jail time … regardless of their race, gender or political affiliation.” McFadden said it feels like the government has had two different standards, “and I can’t abide by that.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Hill
had argued that Jan. 6 was “unlike anything in American history,” and there was “
a vast amount of violence and destruction.” In response to arguments by Cudd’s lawyer,
Hill said the Kavanaugh protesters were escorted out of the Capitol, nobody had to evacuate the building, and the hearing was able to continue.."