Two years ago, a federal judge was forced by mandatory sentencing rules to send a young college student to prison for 10 years for swapping child pornography over the Internet. The judge admitted openly that he was wrestling with his conscience over the sentence, which he called "unjust and harmful."
On Friday the judge, Gerard E. Lynch, had a chance to sentence the student, Jorge Pabon Cruz, again, according to a New York Times report. The judge reduced the sentence by more than half, to four years in prison and eight years of supervision.
Pabon, a shy and withdrawn student from Puerto Rico, had exchanged more than 10,000 images, including some of sex involving young children, through an Internet chat room. Since the first sentence, a defense appeal succeeded on a technicality and the Supreme Court did away with mandatory guidelines. In announcing the new sentence, Judge Lynch said he was still struggling to find the "difficult balances" between Pabon's young age and the gravity of his offense, according to the report.
Pabon has already spent 32 months in jail, and his defense lawyers said he would be free in 10 more months once his good conduct was factored in. He is in prison in the Federal Medical Center Devens in central Massachusetts.
According to the Times, Judge Lynch's experience with the case illustrated both the deep frustrations that many federal judges felt when they were compelled to impose tough sentences for certain crimes, and the new burdens they face now that they have more leeway to decide.
Pabon, who was 18 when he was arrested in 2001, was convicted of advertising child pornography over the Internet. He posted announcements for pornographic photographs in a chat room and then sent the pictures to whomever responded. He had no criminal record, and there was no evidence in the trial that he had profited from the pornography or that he had sexually approached or abused a child, the Times reported.
Before Judge Lynch announced the sentence in Federal District Court in Manhattan, Pabon promised that he would never handle pornography again or commit another crime, after the experience of jail.
"I have not ever in my life had a thought of handling or touching or doing anything harmful to a child," Pabon said. He said he was eager for any psychological counseling the court would require. "I don't know how to make friends," he said. "I do need some help," he said.
Last December, an appeals court threw out Pabon's 10-year sentence on the basis of a wording error in the text of the law on which he was convicted. In January, the Supreme Court decided that the federal sentencing guidelines would no longer be mandatory, but would be consulted only as framework.
Pabon's lawyer, Jennifer Brown, a federal public defender, argued that he should be sentenced to time served and released.
In remarks before he announced the sentence, Judge Lynch said that he had thought more about the case than any other he had encountered. He said he hoped to avoid acting "on the basis of a slogan," on an issue that has provoked high political passions.
Judge Lynch said he had been favorably surprised by a recent report by Dr. Robert A. Prentky, an expert in the psychology of sexual criminals. Dr. Prentky, who was originally selected as a government expert, found that Pabon presented no risk of pedophile behavior in the future, leading Judge Lynch to say that Pabon's prospects after jail seemed "in all respects promising."
