Padilla Case Sent Back for Stiffer Penalty

Jose Padilla's 17-year prison sentence has been thrown out by an appeals court looking for a stiffer penalty for the convicted conspirator.

The appeals court upheld the conviction, but has sent the case back for a new sentencing hearing, arguing that 17 years isn't enough.

According to the the ruling written by the 11th Circuit Chief Judge Joel F. Dubina and joined by Circuit Judge William H. Pryor: "Padilla's sentence is substantively unreasonable because it does not adequately reflect his criminal history, does not adequately account for his risk of recidivism, was based partly on an impermissible comparison to sentences imposed in other terrorism cases and was based in part on inappropriate factors."

Padilla was held for years in the Navy brig in Hanahan after he was arrested in 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport for an alleged terrorism plot for which he was never charged.

Judge Marcia G. Cooke sentenced Padilla in 2008 on the conspiracy charges and purposefully offered a more lenient sentence because of the circumstances of the case.

According to the New York Times, Cooke noted Padilla wasn't convicted of a particular terrorist act and she gave him more than three years off his sentence for time served in the local brig.

In detention, Mr. Padilla underwent prolonged isolation and intensive interrogations in conditions the judge called "harsh." The conditions, she said, "warrant consideration in the sentencing."

The appeals court agreed a reduced sentence can be considered in cases of harsh treatment, but ruled that Cooke was too kind in her judgement.

"Although some downward variance is allowed in this circumstance, the district court abused its discretion," Dubina wrote.