From Life Sentence Is Debated for Meat Plant Ex-Chief, New York Times, 4/28/10:
In a final chapter to the long aftermath of a 2008 immigration raid at a kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa, a federal court in Cedar Rapids heard arguments on Wednesday over the sentencing of Sholom Rubashkin, the former chief executive.
Mr. Rubashkin was in charge of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, when immigration agents landed in helicopters to detain nearly 400 illegal immigrant workers. In November, Mr. Rubashkin was convicted of 86 counts of federal bank fraud in connection with loans to the company.
Prosecutors, citing Mr. Rubashkin’s “blatant lawlessness, utter lack of remorse, his egregious and repeated attempts to obstruct justice,” have asked Judge Linda R. Reade to impose a life sentence.
The proposed sentence startled legal experts around the country. In a letter written to Judge Reade on Monday, six former attorneys general, one former solicitor general and more than a dozen former United States attorneys criticized “the government’s extreme sentencing position” and the “potentially severe injustice” that could result.
The former Justice Department officials questioned the interpretation by Stephanie M. Rose, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Iowa, of the federal criminal sentencing guidelines that would apply to Mr. Rubashkin’s white-collar crime.
“We cannot fathom how truly sound and sensible sentencing rules could call for a life sentence — or anything close to it — for Mr. Rubashkin, a 51-year-old, first-time, nonviolent offender,” they wrote. The letter is signed by Janet Reno, William Barr, Richard Thornburgh, Edwin Meese III, Ramsey Clark and Nicholas Katzenbach, all of whom served as attorney general.
Another letter, submitted by former federal judge Paul Cassell and former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, compares the proposed federal sentence with the federal guideline sentencing for other crimes, and states that the proposed sentence is disproportionate to the offenses committed. A life sentence would reflect crimes as serious as first degree murder and would be more severe than sentences for second degree murder, rape, kidnapping, and arming foreign terrorist organizations. The full letter can be read here.
The website Justiceforsholom.org has prepared an online letter to Judge Reade that legal professionals can sign to support the Cassell and Tolman letter. The letter in support can be accessed here.