These sentences frankly are out of control. You get a sentence that's akin to what you would get for a homicide or for rape. In a white collar case, it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

But at least it made one realize that life still held infinite possibilities for change.

It's not uncommon for them to serve short sentences, if they serve any sentence at all. That's not unusual nationwide. The guidelines the courts are bound by are not as strict as they probably should be.

The seven-year prison sentence is not that great, but it's not out of the ballpark for sentences in Mississippi.

In general there's a rule of thumb that one year in the state system is worth two or three in the federal system.

White-collar cases used to be isolated and very much on the margins. What you saw over the last four years was corruption cases moving from the fringes of corporate America to the very heart, including many Fortune 500 companies.