UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. MIRSAD RAMIC - Articles

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. MIRSAD RAMIC

Posted by: Azya Thornton on May 13, 2026

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ARGUED: Joshua M. Reho, WESTERN KENTUCKY FEDERAL COMMUNITY DEFENDER, INC., Louisville, Kentucky for Mirsad Ramic.

Attorneys 2: ARGUED: Amanda E. Gregory, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Louisville, Kentucky, for the United States.

Attorneys 3: ON BRIEF: Frank W. Heft, Jr., Scott T. Wendelsdorf, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL DEFENDER, Louisville, Kentucky, for Mirsad Ramic.

Attorneys 4: ON BRIEF: Amanda E. Gregory, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Louisville, Kentucky, for the United States.

Judge(s): GIBBONS, THAPAR, and LARSEN, Circuit Judges

Court Appealed: The United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Bowling Green

THAPAR, Circuit Judge. Over a decade ago, a new wave of terrorism spread across the Middle East. A group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) sought to establish a new regime strictly governed by Islamic law. To do so, ISIS employed brutal tactics—planting bombs, publicly decapitating its enemies, burning people alive, and enslaving women and children. It also launched vicious attacks to conquer territory in Iraq and Syria. And it recruited fighters from around the world to perform these acts of terrorism. Mirsad Ramic was one such fighter. He traveled from the United States to Syria, where he participated in an attack that claimed over 100,000 lives. The United States eventually prosecuted him for providing material support to a terrorist group and receiving military-type training from that group. For those crimes, Ramic faced an advisory sentence of 360 to 600 months’ imprisonment under the Sentencing Guidelines. But the district court sentenced Ramic to only 101 months in prison. Because the district court’s substantial variance is substantively unreasonable, we vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing.

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