NPR's Chitra Ragavan reports on a ruling from the Supreme Court today on the issue of how federal prison sentences are imposed. The case involved the sentences of former Los Angeles policemen Stacey Koon and Laurence Powell, convicted in the 1991 videotaped beating of Rodney King. At issue was whether the trial judge exceeded his authority when he sentenced the two to a shorter time in prison than specified by U-S guidelines. Today, justices voted unanimously to have a federal trial judge reconsider the validity of giving both ex-officers stiffer sentences. Koon and Powell are now free. Had the nation's highest court upheld a federal appeals court ruling against them, each man would have faced returning to prison for up to fifty- seven more months.
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