In court papers filed this week, federal prosecutors urged Judge Janet Arterton to sentence confessed map thief E. Forbes Smiley based on the standard sentencing guidelines. Smiley's attorney has urged a lighter sentence, while counsel for the victim libraries have called for a longer prison term. Under the guidelines, Smiley should be sentenced to jail for between 57 and 71 months, a pay a fine ranging between $10,000 and $100,000.
U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor's sentencing recommendation says in part "The government joins the victim institutions in condemning the defendant's reprehensible conduct in the theft of 98 antique maps, six of which will likely never be recovered and a number of the remaining maps altered from their original condition. The government also calls for punishment on behalf of the victim dealers who Smiley defrauded by selling them stolen maps and who have suffered severe financial and institutional harm."
O'Connor's pleading argues that while Smiley's cooperation should be taken into account, "that cooperation, along with a number of other grounds advanced by Mr. Reeve, was not enough to warrant a sentence more lenient than the guidelines." Like Reeve, however, O'Connor argues against the BL's memorandum in favor of a longer sentence than the guidelines provide.
Smiley's current federal sentencing date is Wednesday, September 27.
