Ressam sentencing revived

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments next year on the sentencing of Ahmed Ressam, whose terrorist plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport was thwarted in 1999 by alert customs officers in Port Angeles.

U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle sentenced Ressam in 2005 to 22 years on nine charges, including a rarely used count of carrying an explosive during the commission of another serious crime.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out that conviction because prosecutors had failed to show that carrying the explosives related to an underlying felony of lying on a customs form.

The case will almost certainly return to Coughenour for resentencing. Even though the charge at issue carries a mandatory 10-year sentence, several lawyers familiar with the case said it was unlikely that Ressam's sentence will change substantially regardless of which side wins before the Supreme Court.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Bartlett said Friday: "It's unclear whether this specific issue will have lasting impact on what Judge Coughenour finally decides to sentence Ahmed Ressam to."

But Bartlett, and his boss, U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan, are pleased that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the issue. Sullivan asserts that the 22-year sentence is unreasonably short. He hopes that if his office prevails before the Supreme Court on the carrying explosives charge, the 9th Circuit will take up the issue of the reasonableness of the sentence.

Because prosecutors rarely use the carrying explosives charge, the case is not likely to have wide legal impact.

But Bartlett said he welcomes clarification from the justices on what prosecutors are required to prove in using the law.

In seeking to get the case before the justices, Solicitor General Paul Clement said it would be harder to prosecute terrorists if that interpretation of the carrying explosives law stands.

Ressam's lawyer, federal public defender Tom Hillier, is concerned about the effect of prolonged litigation on the mental health of his client.

"He's in supermax -- solitary confinement in Florence (Colo.) -- which is difficult and debilitating," Hillier said.

"And all the more so when the outcome of the case is certain. This will now take longer to resolve."