After unearthing her lenient prison sentences for child sex offenders, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley has moved from skepticism to hair-on-fire alarm about President Biden’s U.S. Supreme Court nominee.
Ketanji Brown Jackson, a judge on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, is a former federal district judge. Hawley says her record in sentencing child sex and child porn offenders is nothing short of shocking.
“I’m not aware of a single case in which she has given a child sex offender a tough sentence,” Hawley told The Heartlander Thursday. “In fact, in every case that I have found, that I have records for, she has given child sex offenders a sentence below what the federal guidelines recommend.”
Hawley pointed to specific cases in a series of tweets. Here are a few:
- In U.S. v. Hawkins, a sex offender in possession of multiple images of child porn was facing a recommended sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but received only 3 months from Judge Jackson.
- In U.S. v. Stewart, a convicted criminal had “thousands of images of child porn and also hoped to travel across state lines to abuse a 9-year-old girl.” Federal sentencing guidelines called for 97-121 months, about 8 to 10 years, but the offender received 57 months from Jackson, or less than 5 years.
- In U.S. v. Chazin, involving 48 “files” of child porn, the guidelines recommended 78-97 months, but “Judge Jackson gave him 28.”
- In two other cases, guidelines called for sentences of 151-188 months and 70-87 months, but each defendant received 60 months. Hawley said that was the lowest sentence allowed by law.
Hawley called them “token sentences” for child sex crimes.
“To me, if you’ve committed an offense against a child – a child sex offense, or child porn, or something else – you ought to be given a tough sentence,” Hawley said. “ Period. And then you ought to be kept off the streets. I don’t want my kids around child sex offenders. And I’d like to know if there is a child sex offender who is living near the area, near my children or near their school. I suspect that most parents want to know that.
“I want to understand why Judge Jackson wasn’t tough with child sex offenders. I don’t get that. I don’t get it at all. And I certainly don’t agree with it.”
Moreover, Hawley told The Heartlander, during her time on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Jackson advocated for eliminating mandatory minimums for child sex offenders, and questioned whether sex offender registries are constitutional.
Did the Biden administration not do its due diligence before nominating Jackson for a lifetime appointment? “It doesn’t look like it,” Hawley says. “They certainly don’t have any response. All they’ve done is call names and bluster and threaten. So far, no response from them on (Jackson’s) record, no response from them on her cases.
“I hope that senators will do their due diligence here.”
Jackson’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled for next Monday through Thursday.
