Forbes Smiley’s Sentencing Memorandum

The 39-page sentencing memorandum written by Forbes Smiley’s defence attorney, Richard Reeve, is available online (PDF) from the Hartford Courant (see also the attached exhibits). The document responds to the memorandum submitted last week by the British Library, partially on legally technical grounds (a lot of stuff about the arcane details of sentencing guidelines), partially by refuting some of the Library’s arguments. It emphasizes the libraries’ faulty cataloguing, not only challenging their accusation that Smiley took more maps, but also highlighting a peculiar situation about Smiley’s cooperation:

Indeed, the F.B.I. investigation established that the relevant institutions were unaware that 40 of these 80 these maps were even missing before Mr. Smiley admitted their thefts, despite lengthy internal investigations by the institutions themselves.

It also argues that the British Library takes no note of the fact that Smiley is cooperating and that maps are in fact being returned: “[T]he British Library’s rhetoric neglects an important and fundamental truth: the Appian World Map [cited in Goldman’s brief with great flourish] will soon be back in its collection.”

Worth reading in its entirety; the Hartford Courant’s Kim Martineau has a story (to which the above documents were attached) that covers the bases very well, naturally.

See previous entry: Forbes Smiley Asks for Leniency.

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