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Criminal Law Keyed to Ohlin
United States v. Gementera
Citation:
379 F.3d 596 (2004)Facts
On May 21, 2001, Shawn Gementera was observed by police stealing letters from mailboxes along San Francisco’s Fulton Street. He was immediately detained along with his accomplice, Andrew Choi, who had been stuffing the stolen letters into his jacket while Gementera kept watch. Gementera, who was 24 years old at the time, had a significant criminal history including convictions for criminal mischief, driving with a suspended license, domestic disputes, and misdemeanor battery. After pleading guilty to mail theft, Gementera was sentenced to two months incarceration (the lower bound of the Guidelines range) and three years supervised release. Initially, the court imposed a condition requiring him to stand in front of a post office for 100 hours with a signboard declaring “I stole mail. This is my punishment.” After Gementera filed a motion to correct the sentence, the court modified the condition, reducing the signboard requirement to 8 hours and adding three other conditions: observing postal patrons at the “lost or missing mail” window, writing letters of apology to victims, and delivering lectures at a local school about his crime.
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