Padilla gets new 21-year sentence after 11th Circuit says original 17-year term was too lenient
Told by a federal appeals court that the 17-year sentence she had given a convicted terrorism plotter was too lenient, a federal judge in Miami on Tuesday resentenced Jose Padilla to a 21-year term.
The Atlanta-based 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke had erred by crediting Padilla, a U.S. citizen, for three years he was held without being charged in a U.S. Navy brig in South Carolina, according to the Associated Press.
Prosecutors had sought 30 years on resentencing in the Southern District of Florida case, and assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier suggested in court today that the government might appeal the new sentence on the grounds that it is unreasonable, the Sun Sentinel reports.
The 21-year term is what Padilla’s counsel, federal public defender Michael Caruso, had asked for. He argued that the government had tortured and isolated Padilla during the 12 years he has spent in U.S. custody, the Miami Herald reports.
Padilla was convicted in 2007 of providing material support to overseas terrorists.
After his arrest in 2002, he was initially accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive so-called dirty bomb in an American city. However, that case wasn’t pursued, in part due to violation of his Miranda and legal counsel rights while he was in military custody. Padilla was then charged with participating with two others characterized by prosecutors as al-Qaida operatives in efforts to support the terrorist group.
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “Verdict: Padilla is Guilty, Faces Life in Prison”
ABAJournal.com: “11th Circuit Nixes 17-Year Term for Terrorism Plotter Jose Padilla, Says It Wasn’t Long Enough”
