Best Place to Face Feds: Seattle

For those who face federal prosecution in Seattle, there's one bit of good news. Even if they lose the case, there may not be a better place in the country to face sentencing.

Federal judges in the Western District of Washington hand out more lenient sentences than called for by federal guidelines about 10 times more often than the countrywide average, reports the Post-Intelligencer, a Seattle newspaper. That means that about one in five Seattle defendants gets a break at sentencing.

"We believe we had independence," says John McKay, the former U.S. Attorney there. "If we just became machines for putting people in prison, then we wouldn't be doing our job."