John C. Coughenour
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John C. Coughenour (born 1941) is a
senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...
United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...
of the
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (in case citations, W.D. Wash.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of the state of Washington: Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays H ...
. Before being appointed as a judge, Coughenour was a leading litigator with Bogle and Gates and has taught trial and appellate practice at the
University of Washington School of Law The University of Washington School of Law is the law school of the University of Washington, located on the northwest corner of the main campus in Seattle, Washington. The 2023 '' U.S. News & World Report'' law school rankings place Washingt ...
.


Education and career

Coughenour was born in Pittsburg,
Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
. He received a
Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
degree from Kansas State College of Pittsburg in 1963. He received a
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from
University of Iowa College of Law The University of Iowa College of Law is the law school of the University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, Iowa. It was founded in 1865. Iowa is ranked the 28th-best law school in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or U ...
in 1966. Coughenour entered private practice in
Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
in 1966. He was an assistant professor of law at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...
from 1970 to 1973.


Federal judicial service

Coughenour was nominated by President
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
on August 11, 1981, to a seat on the
United States District Court for the Western District of Washington The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (in case citations, W.D. Wash.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of the state of Washington: Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays H ...
vacated by Judge
Morell Edward Sharp Morell Edward Sharp (September 12, 1920 – October 19, 1980) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. Education and career Born in Portland, Oregon, Sharp was in the Unite ...
. He was confirmed by the
United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...
on September 25, 1981, and received commission on September 28, 1981. He served as Chief Judge from 1997 to 2004. He assumed
senior status Senior status is a form of semi-retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the Federal judiciary of the United States, federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of servi ...
on July 27, 2006. Coughenour testified before the
Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...
on 7 April 2004 and 4 June 2008. Coughenour has opposed federal mandatory minimum sentences for a variety of crimes. He also frequently visited individuals in prison to better understand the system and effects of mandatory minimums.


Notable cases


Sexual Predator Law

In 1995 Coughenour found Washington State's Sexually Violent Predator Law to be "criminal in nature". He ruled the law unconstitutionally violated protections against
post facto law An ''ex post facto'' law (from ) is a law that retroactively changes the legal consequences (or status) of actions that were committed, or relationships that existed, before the enactment of the law. In criminal law, it may criminalize actions t ...
s and
double jeopardy In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence (primarily in common law jurisdictions) that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same (or similar) charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare case ...
.


Amhed Ressam case

Coughenour was the judge who first sentenced
Ahmed Ressam Ahmed Ressam ( ar, احمد رسام; also Benni Noris or the Millennium Bomber; born May 9, 1967) is an Algerian al-Qaeda member who lived for a time in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He received extensive terrorist training in Afghanistan. He was c ...
, the "millennium bomber", who planned to blow up the
Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...
on New Year's Eve 1999. Coughenour wrote an
op-ed An op-ed, short for "opposite the editorial page", is a written prose piece, typically published by a North-American newspaper or magazine, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication's editorial board. O ...
in ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', entitled ''"How to Try a Terrorist"'', commenting on
Michael B. Mukasey Michael Bernard Mukasey (; born July 28, 1941) is an American attorney and former federal judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States from 2007 to 2009. Born in New York City in 1941, Mukasey attended Ramaz School, gradua ...
's nomination for
Attorney General of the United States The United States attorney general (AG) is the head of the United States Department of Justice, and is the chief law enforcement officer of the federal government of the United States. The attorney general serves as the principal advisor to the p ...
. Coughenour compared his experience trying Ahmed Ressam with
Michael B. Mukasey Michael Bernard Mukasey (; born July 28, 1941) is an American attorney and former federal judge who served as the 81st Attorney General of the United States from 2007 to 2009. Born in New York City in 1941, Mukasey attended Ramaz School, gradua ...
's trial of
Omar Abdel Rahman Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman ( ar, عمر عبد الرحمن), (ʾUmar ʾAbd ar-Raḥmān; 3 May 1938 – 18 February 2017), commonly known in the United States as "The Blind Sheikh", was a blind Egyptian Islamist militant who served a life sent ...
for his role in the
1993 World Trade Center bombing The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas en ...
. He noted that Mukasey had complained about "the inadequacy of the current approach to terrorism prosecutions." He noted that Mukasey had complained about the limited number of terrorism convictions. Coughenour paraphrased Mukasey: "Open prosecutions… potentially disclose to our enemies methods and sources of intelligence-gathering. Our Constitution does not adequately protect society from 'people who have cosmic goals that they are intent on achieving by cataclysmic means.'" Coughenour wrote that his experience: "only strengthened my conviction that American courts, guided by the principles of our Constitution, are fully capable of trying suspected terrorists." ;Reversal, and remand to different judge On July 27, 2005, Coughenour sentenced Ressam to 22 years in prison, plus 5 years of supervision after his release. On February 2, 2010, the
U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the United States courts of appeals, U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, U.S. district cou ...
ruled that the 22-year sentence Coughenour had handed down was too lenient, and did not fit in the then-mandatory
sentencing guidelines Sentencing guidelines define a recommended sentencing range for a criminal defendant, based upon characteristics of the defendant and of the criminal charge. Depending upon the jurisdiction, sentencing guidelines may be nonbinding, or their applic ...
which indicated Ressam should have received at least 65 years, and up to 130 years, in prison. The court ordered that Ressam be re-sentenced by a different district court judge than Coughenour. An en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit subsequently reconsidered the 2010 opinion. The en banc panel agreed that the 22-year sentence was too lenient, but refused to remand the case to a different judge, instead sending the case back to Judge Coughenour. On remand, Judge Coughenour sentenced Ressam to 37 years imprisonment to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. The United States did not appeal the sentence.


Jason Scott Case

In 1995, Coughenour also presided over the civil trial of the
Jason Scott case The Jason Scott case was a United States civil suit, brought against deprogrammer Rick Ross, two of his associates, and the Cult Awareness Network (CAN), for the abduction and failed deprogramming of Jason Scott, a member of the United Pentecos ...
, which resulted in damages awarded against the
Cult Awareness Network The Cult Awareness Network (CAN) was an anti-cult organization created by deprogrammer Ted Patrick that provided information on groups that it considered to be cults, as well as support and referrals to deprogrammers. It was founded in the wake ...
and
deprogrammer Deprogramming is a controversial tactic that attempts to help someone who has "strongly held convictions," often coming from cults or New Religious Movements (NRM). Deprogramming aims to assist a person who holds a controversial or restrictive be ...
Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. Prior to releasing his debut single, "Hustlin'", in 2006, Ross was the subject of a bidding war, receiving offers from Sean Combs, D ...
.


References


External links


Resumé
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coughenour, John C. 1941 births Living people People from Pittsburg, Kansas Pittsburg State University alumni University of Iowa alumni University of Washington School of Law faculty Lawyers from Seattle Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington United States district court judges appointed by Ronald Reagan 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges