{"id":1394894,"date":"2022-03-22T18:46:34","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T22:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1394894"},"modified":"2022-03-22T18:46:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-22T22:46:53","slug":"democrat-sen-dick-durbin-leaps-to-defend-ketanji-brown-jackson-from-accusations-of-leniency-in-child-porn-possession-cases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/democrat-sen-dick-durbin-leaps-to-defend-ketanji-brown-jackson-from-accusations-of-leniency-in-child-porn-possession-cases\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin Leaps to Defend Ketanji Brown Jackson from Accusations of Leniency in Child Porn Possession Cases"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">38<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdemocrat-sen-dick-durbin-leaps-to-defend-ketanji-brown-jackson-from-accusations-of-leniency-in-child-porn-possession-cases%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1394894&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p class=\"subheading\">Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) leaped to the defense of President Joe Biden\u2019s Supreme Court nominee on the second day of her confirmation hearing, favorably questioning her record of \u201clenient\u201d sentences for defendants who were caught in possession of child pornography.<\/p>\n<p>Durbin, who is the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, started off the hearing by raising questions about Ketanji Brown Jackson\u2019s record of sentencing \u201cnon-production\u201d cases below federal guidelines \u2014 a line of questioning which was in direct response to Sen. Josh Hawley\u2019s (R-MO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawleyMO\/status\/1504221926662844418\">Twitter thread<\/a> last week. In these tweets, Hawley detailed Jackson\u2019s rulings, interviews, articles, and speeches and accused her of \u201chaving a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook for their appalling crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019ve been researching the record of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, reading her opinions, articles, interviews &#038; speeches. I\u2019ve noticed an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson\u2019s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawleyMO\/status\/1504221926662844418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Durbin\u2019s first sympathetically queried about how Jackson\u2019s family must have felt hearing Hawley\u2019s accusations before asking her to comment on her judgment in the many cases Hawley detailed in his tweets.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought about his charges as I watched you and your family listening carefully yesterday, and what impact it might\u2019ve had on you personally to know that your daughters, husband, parents, family, and friends were hearing the charges that your implementation of this law, sentencing, endangered children,\u201d Durbin said. \u201cCould you tell us what was going through your mind at that point?\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Jackson maintained that \u201cas a mother\u00a0and a judge\u201d who has had to rule in those types of cases, she thought that \u201cnothing could be further from the truth.\u201d The nominee offered a lengthy and at times visibly emotional explanation for why she sentenced \u201cnon-production\u201d sex offenders below recommended federal sentencing guidelines, a trend which has been increasing among judges, according to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ussc.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/pdf\/research-and-publications\/research-publications\/2021\/20210629_Non-Production-CP.pdf\">2021 report<\/a> from the United States Sentencing Commission.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe statute [set by Congress] doesn\u2019t say \u2018impose the highest possible penalty for this sickening and egregious crime.\u2019 The statute says \u2018calculate the guidelines, but also look at various aspects of this offense and impose a sentence that is sufficient but not greater than necessary to promote the purposes of punishment,\u201d\u2018 Jackson explained.<\/p>\n<p>Upon further prompting from Durbin, who cited fact-checks from corporate media and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/politics\/2022\/03\/21\/hamilton-democrats-parrot-national-review-article-favoring-judge-kentanji-brown-jacksons-leniency-on-child-porn-offenders\/#disqus_thread\"><em>National Review<\/em> <\/a>as supposed proof that Hawley\u2019s claims are \u201cunfair,\u201d Jackson explained that the original statutory scheme for sentencing these types of sex offenders was created at a time when \u201cmore serious child pornography offenders\u201d were judged based on the \u201cnumber of photographs that they received in the mail.\u201d She added that she believes the guidelines \u201cmade total sense before when we didn\u2019t have internet.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_20316800\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/03\/Day-2-Ketanji-Brown-Jackson.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson speaks during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Tuesday, March 22, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Evan Vucci)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cBut the way that the guideline is now structured based on that set of circumstances is leading to extreme disparities in the system because it\u2019s so easy for people to get volumes of this kind of material now by computers,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not doing the work of differentiating who is a more serious offender in the way that it used to. So, the commission has taken that into account, and perhaps more importantly, courts are adjusting their sentences in order to account for the changed circumstances \u2014 but it says nothing about the court\u2019s view of the seriousness of this offense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jackson also said that as a judge, when dealing with these kinds of cases, it was \u201cimportant to [her] to make sure that the children\u2019s perspectives \u2014 children\u2019s voices are represented\u201d in her sentences.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAnd what that means, is that for every defendant who comes before me, and who suggests \u2014 as they often do \u2014 that they\u2019re just a looker, that these crimes don\u2019t really matter, that they\u2019ve collected these things on the internet and it\u2019s fine \u2014 I tell them about the victims\u2019 statements that have come into me as a judge,\u201d she said. \u201cI tell them about the adults who were former child sex abuse victims who tell me that they will never have a normal adult relationship because of this abuse. I tell them about the ones who said, \u2018I went into prostitution.\u2019 \u2018I fell into drugs because I was trying to suppress the hurt that was done to me as an infant.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026I say to them that there\u2019s only a market for this kind of material because there are lookers. That you are contributing to child sex abuse. And then I impose a significant sentence and all of the additional restraints that are available in the law,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>Hawley\u2019s Twitter thread included several examples of Jackson\u2019s various child porn possession rulings. In one of the cases, <em>United States v. Hawkins<\/em>, the defendant reportedly \u201chad multiple images of child porn\u201d and was over 18 years old when Jackson sentenced him to three months in prison instead of a sentence of up to ten years, per the Sentencing Guidelines.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In the case of United States v. Hawkins, the sex offender had multiple images of child porn. He was over 18. The Sentencing Guidelines called for a sentence of up to 10 years. Judge Jackson sentenced the perpetrator to only 3 months in prison. Three months.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawleyMO\/status\/1504221949941137415?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIn United States v. Stewart, the criminal possessed thousands of images of child porn and also hoped to travel across state lines to abuse a 9-year-old girl,\u201d Hawley wrote of another case. \u201cThe Guidelines called for a sentence of 97-121 months. Judge Jackson sentenced the criminal to just 57 months.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In United States v. Cooper, in which the criminal had more than 600 images and videos and posted many on a public blog, the Guidelines called for a sentence of 151-188 months. Judge Jackson settled on 60 months, the lowest possible sentence allowed by law.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HawleyMO\/status\/1504221951849635840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cIn United States v. Sears, the sex offender distributed more than 102 child porn videos. He also sent lewd pictures of his own 10-year-old daughter. The Guidelines recommended 97-121 months in prison. Judge Jackson gave him 71 months,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to detailing several other cases, Hawley wrote that Jackson has a \u201cdisturbing record for any judge\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2026But especially one nominated to the highest court in the land. Protecting the most vulnerable shouldn\u2019t be up for debate. Sending child predators to jail shouldn\u2019t be controversial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Hawley was scheduled to question Jackson much later in the hearing, which gave Durbin the chance to question Jackson before Republican members of the committee.<\/p>\n<p><em>Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on\u00a0<a class=\"x5l\" title=\"This external link will open in a new window\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/katherineeeeee2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) leaped to the defense of President Joe Biden\u2019s Supreme Court nominee on the second day of her confirmation hearing, favorably questioning her record of \u201clenient\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1394894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1394894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1394894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1394894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1394894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1394894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}