Paladino Remand Procedure

United States v. Michael Spano, Sr. et al., No. 03-1110 (May 9, 2006): The Court sent this case back on a Paladino remand. The district court adhered to the original sentence. The appellants complained that the district judge did not give sufficient attention to the factors found in 18 U.S.C. sec. 3553(a). The Seventh Circuit agreed that the district judge seemed to focus more on the original sentencing than on an analysis of the section 3553 factors. ". . . but this is entirely understandable given the paucity of the defendants' arguments below. . . . The need for a judge to explain in detail his consideration of the . . . factors when choosing to stick with the Guidelines sentence is proportional to the arguments made by the defendants. . . . When the judge is not presented with much, he need not explain much."

As for the reasonableness assessment by the Seventh Circuit, it found that the appellants had not done any better in bringing detailed reasons to the Court's attention on further review.