Menu
U.S. prosecutors again appeal Smith sentence
The long legal saga of a former Putnam County sheriff's deputy and Greencastle city councilman isn't quite at an end.
On Friday U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler filed a second appeal to the 14-month sentence given to T.J. Smith, 39, Greencastle, by U.S. District Judge William Lawrence.
Smith was first charged in March 2014 with four counts of deprivation of civil rights under color of law for incidents of alleged police brutality.
In September of that year, a jury found Smith guilty of two of four counts.
Then in December 2014, Judge Lawrence sentenced Smith to 14 months in prison, a penalty the prosecution promptly appealed, noting that it was less than half of the advisory range of 33 to 41 months for even one conviction.
On the original appeal, the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the prosecution's contention, returning the case to Lawrence's Terre Haute courtroom for resentencing.
The district judge, however, stuck to his original sentence in a ruling this April, only clarifying his reasoning in handing down the exact same 14-month sentence.
Smith had already been released from federal custody in January, having served less than a year of his sentence.
"I do not see any benefit in re-incarcerating Mr. Smith," Lawrence said at the time.
The prosecution strongly disagreed, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley Blackington saying right after the re-sentencing hearing that the U.S. Attorney's Office was likely to ask the U.S. Solicitor General's Office for permission to file another appeal.
With Friday's filing, the case returns to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Judge Richard Posner, who had strong words for Judge Lawrence in the previous decision from the appeals court.
"Does (Judge Lawrence's) review of the cases provide any basis for thinking 14 months a proper sentence for Smith?" the veteran jurist wrote in his previous decision. "Apart from the judge's reference to anger management and comments on Smith's minor good works in the community, no reason for the light sentences he imposed can be found in the transcript of the sentencing hearing."
Time will tell what Judge Posner thinks of the case returning with the exact same sentence.
No date for an appellate hearing before Posner and his colleagues has been set, but Smith's attorneys have until Sept. 12 to file a brief in response.