Four more summary orders of note:

In United States v. Magner, No. 11-0751-cr (2d Cir. January 25, 2012), a child pornography case, the court voided a special condition of supervised release prohibiting the defendant from using an electronic device to access “pornography of any kind,” including any “website depicting images of nude adults or minors.” The condition was overbroad, as it included “materials that are not by any normal definition obscene, pornographic, or even erotic, such as art museum websites containing works of art.”

United States v. Echeverri, No. 11-0303-cr (2d Cir. February 16, 2012), found that a within-guideline, ninety-seventh month child pornography sentence was insufficiently explained, and hence procedurally unreasonable, where the district court justified the sentence only by observing that it had considered the statute and arguments of counsel and had concluded that a “low end” sentence was appropriate.

In United States v. Fann, No. 11-0540-cr (2d Cir. …

The circuit consistently produces summary orders that are worthy of note. Here are the most recent three:

In L.M. v. United States, No. 10-371-cr (2d Cir. January 17, 2012), the court vacated the sentence that Judge Platt imposed on a cooperator. The facts of the case are truly exceptional. The defendant cooperated for seventeen years, brought down “a number of large-scale international drug dealers, and received several “credible threats of violence.” The government, in its 5K1.1 motion, characterized him as “unique[].” L.M. also underwent an “admirable personal transformation” during this period. Nevertheless, with “little explanation” the district court gave him a-year-and-a-day in prison. The circuit found that the sentence was procedurally unreasonable because it was insufficiently explained. It was “particularly troubling” court did not even mention L.M.’s long period of rehabilitation. The court stopped short of finding that the sentence was substantively unreasonable, calling that a “thorny issue,” but did …