Republican senators who’ve criticized Decide Ketanji Jackson for her method to sentencing youngster sexual abuse defendants have centered on a single case from 2013 during which they argue she was inappropriately lenient on an adolescent who pleaded responsible.

Right here’s what occurred in that case, United States v. Hawkins:

A high-school pupil downloaded pornographic photographs, and was arrested.

In 2012 Wesley Hawkins, an 18-year-old who was then in highschool, began downloading pornographic photographs from the web and, in accordance with his lawyer, felt “confusion and shock slightly than arousal.”

A homosexual boy from a non secular household that strongly disapproved of homosexuality, Mr. Hawkins was pushed by a sort of curiosity concerning the photographs and his connection to the individuals in them appeared, his lawyer mentioned, to be “one among figuring out” slightly than of “exploiting them sexually.”

A lot of photographs have been, nevertheless, extraordinarily disturbing, exhibiting younger boys engaged in a wide range of intercourse acts, a few of them violent. When Mr. Hawkins reposted a few of the photographs onto YouTube, legislation enforcement officers obtained a “cyber-tip” about him and shortly a police detective posing as a fellow youngster pornography collector reached out to him by electronic mail and recommended they commerce photographs.

Prosecutors say that Mr. Hawkins finally swapped photographs with the undercover detective, sending some information and asking for others that he believed have been of the detective’s 12-year-old daughter.

Mr. Hawkins was arrested in June 2013, and prosecutors mentioned he was instantly cooperative and “took full accountability for his actions.”

Mr. Hawkins pleaded responsible and expressed regret.

That September, Mr. Hawkins pleaded responsible to downloading and buying and selling scores of photographs and films containing youngster pornography, a number of exhibiting boys who have been beneath the age of 13.

After the plea, the case moved towards sentencing. In papers submitted to Decide Jackson, Mr. Hawkins’s lawyer, Jonathan Jeffress, argued that his consumer had indicated “no curiosity in any respect” within the undercover detective’s repeated ideas of a real-life sexual encounter.

Mr. Jeffress additionally submitted an analysis by a psychologist asserting that Mr. Hawkins didn’t “show sexual deviation” however was as a substitute pushed to observe the pornographic photographs as “a method for him to discover his curiosity about gay exercise and join together with his emotional friends.”

Prosecutors, in their very own submitting to Decide Jackson, mentioned they thought-about the psychologist’s report and whereas they didn’t agree with all the pieces in it, believed it offered “helpful insights” about Mr. Hawkins’s “private circumstances, household state of affairs, and stage of growth.”

Mr. Hawkins wrote Decide Jackson a quick letter saying how a lot he regretted what he had finished.

“I’ve dissatisfied everybody in my household and everybody who has ever cared about me,” he wrote. “I hope that I could make up my errors and that this won’t finish my life earlier than it begins. I swear that I’ll by no means do that once more or any crime ever in my life.”

Prosecutors requested for a two-year sentence, calling the case ‘very distinctive.’

The sentencing was in November 2013.

The prosecution requested Decide Jackson to condemn Mr. Hawkins to 2 years in jail, arguing that his possession of the fabric was “extraordinarily troubling and deserving of punishment.”

Mr. Hawkins’s lawyer requested for a single day in jail. He claimed that his consumer was younger, remorseful and suffered from “rising psychological sickness.”

Each side advised Decide Jackson that prior instances supported their arguments, and everybody agreed that the case was difficult and marked by what the prosecutor referred to as “very distinctive circumstances.”

The prosecution talked about instances during which not less than two males who obtained youngster pornography from on-line chat rooms or from an undercover officer have been sentenced to a full 12 months in jail. The protection pointed to instances of males who had bigger collections of illicit materials than Mr. Hawkins did however didn’t serve jail time in any respect.

Decide Jackson handed down a three-month jail sentence, adopted by six years of supervised launch.

Ultimately, Decide Jackson — then in her first 12 months on the federal bench in Washington — gave Mr. Hawkins three months in jail adopted by greater than six years of supervised launch.

In making her resolution — “a really tough state of affairs,” as she put it on the time — Decide Jackson issued a sentence decrease than those really useful by each the probation division and the nonbinding federal pointers.

She additionally credited the protection’s declare that Mr. Hawkins shouldn’t be regarded as a pedophile as a result of he was pretty shut in age to the kids depicted within the photographs he had.

Whereas she acknowledged that Mr. Hawkins’s crimes have been “severe” and “heinous,” she additionally mentioned his case was not as troubling as others she had seen.

“I don’t consider that you’re related in intent or as culpable as a few of the wicked older adults,” she mentioned.

The comparatively lenient sentence was common for youngster pornography instances — particularly for these of defendants who possess such materials, however should not concerned in making it. Nor was the choice out of protecting with comparable instances within the Federal District Courtroom in Washington the place older defendants with bigger youngster pornography collections haven’t served jail time in any respect.

Decide Jackson advised Mr. Hawkins that the kids within the footage he possessed had been pressured to commit “unspeakable acts” for “the gratification of sick individuals all over the place.” A few of them, she added, would by no means have a “regular grownup relationship” whereas others may flip to medication or vices “to deal emotionally with the ache.”

However Decide Jackson famous that Mr. Hawkins by no means produced any pornographic materials himself and that he had solely watched such materials for lower than a 12 months. He was additionally younger, remorseful and had the remainder of his life forward him.

“It’s tragic that you simply permitted your curiosity to jeopardize all of that,” she mentioned.