Sotomayor Was Tougher Than Colleagues On White Collar Crime

WASHINGTON — High court nominee Sonia Sotomayor typically handed out tougher prison sentences than her colleagues in the federal courthouse in Manhattan, especially to white-collar criminals, a new study says.

Nearly half the people Sotomayor sentenced for financial fraud and other white-collar crimes received at least 6 months in prison, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

By contrast, roughly one out of three white-collar convicts received similarly lengthy prison terms from the other trial judges in the Southern District of New York, the study found.

Sotomayor served as a trial judge from 1992 to 1998, when she joined the federal appeals court in New York.

TRAC looked at 7,750 criminal cases handled by 52 judges during that period. Sotomayor presided over 261 of those prosecutions. TRAC obtained the data from the Justice Department under the federal Freedom of Information Act.

For drug cases and a wide range of other matters grouped together by TRAC, Sotomayor was slightly more likely to hand out any prison time as well as sentences of at least six months.

The 55-year-old New Yorker, nominated by President Barack Obama to replace Justice David Souter, spent five years as a prosecutor in state court in New York.

Her confirmation hearings begin Monday.

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On the Net:

TRAC study: http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/judge/213/

Comments

[MadCroation]

White collar crime is far more harmful to this country than any terrorist group.

[sarabono]

Well if that headline is true, that's very very encouraging.

[Annieke]

Punishing the Wall Street-boys for their crimes...she's got my vote.

[Moxo]

Will the GOP parade some white collar criminals who got more than a slap on the wrist?

[bigsioux]

Good one.

[justoverit333]

oh ok. so that makes sense now why the Party of No
do not want her approved. Because all of their cronies
have their hands in white collar crime. ok, I get it now.

[-0013]

Yeah - when was the last time a white collar criminal case got to the supreme court genius?

[BlackWidowPilot]

Every time an issue of corporations being allowed to run roughshod over We The People has been in the SCOTUS docket, Number 13. Every time corporate entities refused to accept responsibility for their misdeeds, and had to be sued, the case taken up all the way to the SCOTUS for final judgement.

Then again, seeing that you're an apparent avowed partisan of the moneyed corporations, I fully understand why the likes of Judge Sotomayor would annoy you... as would the following:

"I hope we shall... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country."

--Thomas Jefferson to George Logan, 1816.

A Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor would clearly be no friend of the corporate aristocracy you so slavishly defend, so your angst and ire are predictable as is your sad attempt at sarcastic witticism in defense of all things authoritarian and corporate.

Leland R. Erickson

Citizen

[RedPower09]

The major reason I'm opposed to her is that she is an activist judge. However, that said, I am open to changing my mind. I would REALLY like it if she would answer Cornyn's questions so I could make a better judgment on her.

[barackobama4prez]

The facts do not support your Rushbot claim that she is an activist judge.

[justoverit333]

yeah I agree. The Party of No has "labeled" her
an activist judge.

[EmeraldWorld]

And they should receive harsher treatment. They've been coddled and let off easy for far too long.

[Ivar]

Amen!

[smiles678]

Amen!

[JackWhistle]

:D

[Grunty1]

Perfect! White Collar Criminals has been coddled in this country for decades, especially by the Rushpublicans.

[llisa]

Tough on white collar crime? Ah HA. Here's the real reason Republicans hate her.

[Json]

Was thinking the same thing! I'm curious to know how much corporate america is pushing the repubs to try to derail the nomination.

[111]

She's probably not tougher on white-collar crime, she probably just applied the law as it should be applied - equally.

anyway, this is a good thing in my eyes. financial crimes should be punished.

[julia23]

That was my thinking also.

[Ivar]

Ditto.

[thereWego]

We don't need a Roseane Bar look alike on the High Court! Send her packing back to the ghetto.

[Grunty1]

Another Rushpublican showing their true, r@cist AND sex!st, colors.

[barackobama4prez]

LMAO...is that the best insult you could muster?

Hellllllllllooooo Justice Sotomayor!

[Ivar]

LOL. True true!

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

An you should go back to your father who is actually your brother.

[mama1974]

Thanks for rolling off your sister long enough to post your racism.

[dancucich]

She was also tough on criminal defendants in general.


The Fraternal Order of Police and other law-enforcement organizations convened to reiterate their support for Sotomayor.

The law enforcement endorsements coincided with the release of a Senate Judiciary Committee study showing that as an appellate judge, Sotomayor voted to affirm 92 percent of the criminal convictions that came before her.

A one-time New York City prosecutor and trial judge, Sotomayor nearly always sided with Republican appointees in criminal cases that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considered, the study shows. She sat with Republican-named judges on more than 400 criminal cases as an appellate judge, and agreed with all Republican appointees 97 percent of the time.

Appellate panels on which Sotomayor served reversed only 2 percent of convictions. Among their affirmation rates: cases involving illegal firearms, 98 percent; drug offenses, 93 percent; criminal immigration violations, 92 percent; and economic crime, 93 percent.

''It is clear that she weighs the facts in evidence and makes her rulings based on the merits of the case,'' said Chuck Canterbury, the president of the Fraternal Order of Police. ``She is a model jurist: tough, fair-minded and mindful of the constitutional protections afforded to all U.S. citizens.''

[bosha]

...and the Republicans look at that as a bad thing well I can see why? These are the same "white collar" criminals that brought our economy down.

[Ivar]

Oh so true.

[Icantbelieveher]

And here-in lies the reasons for republican objections to this judge!