Court: Ressam sentence 'failed to protect public'

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has harshly rebuked a Seattle-based federal judge for sentencing would-be millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam to 22 years in prison, a penalty the court said failed to "protect the public" from the al-Qaida-trained terrorist.

In a 2-1 decision, the San Francisco-based appeals court Tuesday overturned the sentence imposed on Ressam by longtime U.S. District Court Judge John Coughenour in December 2008 and ordered that Ressam be resentenced.

The appeals court ruled that Coughenour "procedurally erred" by failing to address the arguments presented by federal prosecutors — who argued for a life sentence — and by issuing a sentence far below the guidelines, which ranged from 65 years to life in prison.

The 72-page ruling, written by Circuit Judge Arthur L. Alarcón, also ordered that Ressam's resentencing be reassigned to a different federal judge because Coughenour's "previously expressed views appear too entrenched to allow for the appearance of fairness on remand."

The appeals court said Coughenour needed to weigh the need to "protect the public" in his sentencing decision.

"This factor is particularly relevant in a terrorist case such as this, where Ressam, who has demonstrated strongly held beliefs about the need to attack American interests in the United States and abroad, will be only 53 years old upon his release," Alarcón wrote. Judge Richard R. Clifton agreed with Alarcón.

Coughenour declined to comment Tuesday on the decision, but in December 2008 he defended the sentence by pointing to the significance of Ressam's earlier cooperation with intelligence agencies from the United States, France, Spain, Germany, Italy and England. Information provided by Ressam, the judge said, "proved to be invaluable and ... almost certainly prevented other attacks." But Ressam had stopped cooperating with authorities three years earlier.

On Tuesday, U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan said she was "gratified that the Court of Appeals recognized the importance of public safety at sentencing and that Mr. Ressam remains a threat to the public."

"We have the greatest respect for Judge John Coughenour and his hard work on a difficult case," Durkan said in a statement. "However, we maintain that to protect the public, and deter others, a longer prison sentence is necessary."

Durkan said the case could return to Seattle for reassignment as early as this month.

Federal Public Defender Thomas Hillier II, who represents Ressam, called the decision to remove the case from Coughenour "shocking" and "unprecedented." He calls it "a bad signal for district court judges everywhere."

"By taking the case away from him, this two-judge majority is suggesting that he [Coughenour] is not going to follow its direction and resentence in accordance with the majority's view that the original sentence was too low," Hillier said.

Hillier said he plans ask the appeals court to reconsider the decision and, if needed, he will petition the U.S. Supreme Court.

Circuit Judge Ferdinand F. Fernandez offered the sole dissenting opinion to Tuesday's ruling. He wrote that it is apparent that Coughenour considered the materials before him when he imposed the sentence.

"Simply put, it seems to me that the majority just does not like the fact that this terrorist is to sit in prison for a mere twenty-two years," Fernandez wrote. "In short, the sentence was neither procedurally erroneous nor substantively unreasonable."

Ressam, an Algerian national who had been living in Montreal for several years, was arrested in Port Angeles in 1999 after crossing into the U.S. from Victoria, B.C., with electronic timers, powders and liquids in the trunk of his rental car that turned out to be the makings of a powerful bomb.

A federal investigation showed Ressam had been recruited by al-Qaida in Montreal and had trained in Osama bin Laden-sponsored terrorism camps in Afghanistan. He was planning to set off a massive suitcase bomb in the Los Angeles International Airport during the millennium celebrations.

After his conviction in April 2001, Ressam cooperated with federal authorities in hopes of winning a shorter prison sentence. He became a key source of information on the operation of al-Qaida in Western Europe and North America after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, providing information that led to the prosecution of some of the terrorist organization's top leaders.

But two years later he stopped cooperating. A court-appointed psychiatrist found that he was suffering from a mental breakdown after years in solitary confinement and repeated interrogations. When he was sentenced in December 2008, Ressam recanted everything he'd ever said as a government informant.

"I did not know what I was saying," said Ressam, who claimed the FBI and attorneys "put words in my mouth."

Coughenour has twice sentenced Ressam to 22-year terms for the attempted bombing.

The first sentence, imposed in July 2005, was thrown out by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because Coughenour had failed to cite for the record the applicable sentencing guidelines and why he diverged from them.

Information from Seattle Times archives is included in this report.

Jennifer Sullivan: 206-464-8294 or jensullivan@seattletimes.com