In United States v. Peguero, No. 07-2306-cr (2d Cir. August 19, 2009), the appellate court vacated a sentence where the district court presumed that the guideline sentence was reasonable by saying, “I have the ability to do justice and depart [or impose] a sentence independently of the Guidelines, but my opinion is that that is reserved for really special situations, and I even then take the Guidelines into serious consideration.”
This decision is another example of appellate courts being more and more encouraging and supportive of district courts using their own common sense of justice in fashioning an appropriate sentence. Here, the appellate court did not even like the notion that the lower court assumed that the guideline sentence was reasonable. It will not be long before district courts feel increasingly free to give sentences that they believe are just. Like anything involving the law, the wheels will move exceedingly slow, but they will inexorably move