“On a recent Friday in a federal courtroom in Lincoln, a federal judge spoke critically about the 10-year sentence he was on the verge of handing down to the Lincoln man, a nonviolent, recovering meth user.
“U.S. District Judge John Gerrard’s hands were tied.
“‘The only reason I’m imposing the sentence that I am imposing today is because I have to,’ he told Leo Guthmiller III on Feb. 12. ‘That’s what Congress mandates.'”