I'm fuzzy on this too. Her sentence was close to what the prosecution asked for, but the prosecution also seems to have asked for something much lower than the guidelines allowed --- so did the PSR.
That's right. Holmes' sentencing guidelines went over the top of the scale (45/43), and the prosecution recommended a variance to lower that. The guideline calculation was 80 years.
- "Through this variance request, the government also acknowledges that the Holmes’ crimes were not motivated by a short-term desire for financial gain. Second, this recommended sentence satisfies the ‘sufficient but not greater than necessary’ standard found in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). Finally, the Court will achieve the important sentencing goal of providing adequate deterrence to criminal conduct through a 15-year custodial sentence."
