| Mzembe and two others kidnapped another man, shot him, beat him, and held him for ransom, then abandoned him in an alley. Separate federal juries found the three men guilty of multiple federal crimes. Mzembe was sentenced to 44 years' imprisonment. Intervening changes in law required the Seventh Circuit to vacate the convictions under 18 U.S.C. 924(c) for discharging a firearm in a crime of violence. Between Mzembe’s federal sentencing hearings, Mzembe was convicted in Indiana state court for crimes committed before the kidnapping and was sentenced to 62 years, consecutive to the federal sentence. The state sentence became final. Mzembe's Guidelines range for the remaining federal crimes was life in prison; he was sentenced to 36 years, to run consecutively. The court addressed mitigation evidence and said that a below-guideline sentence would be appropriate but said: I don’t know if I have the authority to run the sentences concurrent … if I do ... I don’t think it would be an appropriate exercise of my authority” because the state judge decided that the reasonable punishment for the state crime included consecutive sentencing. The written opinion stated: It is one thing for a federal court to modify a federal sentence in light of changes in federal law, but it would be a different thing for a federal court to restructure the state sentence. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments that the judge gave an inadequate explanation for his decision, erred in deferring to the state court’s intervening judgment to make the sentences consecutive, and imposed an unreasonably severe sentence. |
