By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope, Photos
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Nov 18 – When Cesar Sayoc came to be sentenced by Judge Jed Rakoff in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on August 5, 2019 - before he got a 20 year term and a written decision -- he had a written speech about being sexual abused in a Catholic boarding school and now not believing what he wrote on social media as he sent the sixteen amateurish pipe bombs.
Sayoc's Federal Defender Ian Marcus Amelkin began to argue how, in essence, Trump was to blame. Judge Rakoff cut this off, calling it a sideshow. He said the issue was what Sayoc did, and what he intended at the time.
The defense's expert Harrison G. Pope said that the effects of steroid are gone within weeks. Judge Rakoff as one of a half dozen jokes said he'd read the study, to make sure he could get a good nights sleep. He also joked about not holding Harvard pedigree against the experts, and that law school is cruel and unusual punishment. Each brought loud laughter, some perhaps directed at impacting the sentence. In less high profile proceedings Judge Rakoff is equally jocular, and the laughter often more sincere.
After a ten minute break Judge Rakoff returned and read a written decision. He ran through the standard of Section 3553(a) - a sentence no longer than necessary - and the Golden Rule. He concluded that Sayoc could have built a functioning bomb but chose not to. But that did not lead to the minimum, ten year sentence, but its double: 20 years (240 months), then four years of supervised release.
In November 2021 Sayoc filed an 8 page plea for compassionate release, citing "props from my Chippendale male dance show" - but forgot a key point: "ORDER as to Cesar Altieri Sayoc (1): because Sayoc has not indicated that he has made such a request in writing with the Warden of his facility, the present motion is denied with out prejudice. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Jed S. Rakoff on 11/18/202).
The case is US v. Sayoc, 18-cr-820 (Rakoff)
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