Crime & Federalism

From the same judge who gave us the long footnote about the modern use of the word "'ho."


After receiving what can best be described as a whopper of a sentence—1,200 months in a federal prison—Karl Bullock filed this appeal claiming it was unreasonable. Today, we resolve his appeal. Bullock pleaded guilty to five counts of distributing heroin. Each count carried a maximum penalty of 20 years. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C). The district court imposed the maximum sentence for each of the counts, stringing them together for a total sentence of 100 years. One hundred years is a long time—one year longer, in fact, than the standard lyrical shorthand for an unimaginably long sentence. [n1]


[n1] See, e.g., Bruce Springsteen, "Johnny 99" ("Well the evidence is
clear, gonna let the sentence, son, fit the crime / Prison for 98 and
a year and we'll call it even, Johnny 99."); Bob Dylan, "Percy's
Song" ("It may be true he's got a sentence to serve / But ninetynine
years, he just don't deserve."); Johnny Cash, "Cocaine Blues"
("The judge he smiled as he picked up his pen / Ninety-nine years
in the Folsom pen / Ninety-nine years underneath that ground / I
can't forget the day I shot that bad bitch down."); Ed Bruce,
"Ninety-Seven More To Go" ("Ninety-nine years go so slow / When
you still got ninety-seven more to go."); Bill Anderson, "Ninety-
Nine" ("The picture's still in front of my eyes, the echo in my ears
/ When the jury said he's guilty and the judge said ninety-nine
years."); Chloe Bain, "Ninety-Nine Years" ("The sentence was
sharp, folks, it cut like a knife / For ninety-nine years, folks, is
almost for life."); Guy Mitchell, "Ninety-Nine Years" ("Ninety-nine
years in the penitentiary, baby, baby, wait for me, around twentyfifty-
five we'll get together dead or alive.").

Special thanks to MrETramp.