Bernard Ebbers will begin serving a 25 year sentence this week.  The Washington Post here notes comments on this upcoming sentence, including a comment by Professor Frank Bowman stating that "[m]y own sense is that any sentence over 20 years for anybody for an economic crime is hard to justify."

So why is it that a man with no prior criminal record was given a sentence of 25 years for a non-violent crime? The bottom line is the federal sentencing guidelines.  The effect of these guidelines is to rachet up the sentences for white collar offenses.  The sentence is computed to a large extent based upon fraud loss.  The character of the offender, the lack of prior criminal history, and rehabilitation are basically thrown out the window when courts look at a mathematical forumula that looks solely at the amount of fraud loss, a number that can rarely ever be computed with precision (see Olis). Anyone who contends that we need to worry about the discretion judges have in this post-Booker world, need only watch Ebbers as he goes off to prison.

(esp)