Court overturns 1-day sentence in Ohio child-porn case

CINCINNATI (AP) — An appeals court has overturned for a second time the one-day jail sentence of an Ohio man found with hundreds of photos and videos depicting young girls being raped.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati today threw out the sentence, ruling that it was unreasonably light and that Judge James Graham had diminished the seriousness of the crime.

Richard Bistline of Mount Vernon in central Ohio had faced between 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 years in prison after his 2010 child-pornography conviction.

Judge Graham twice gave Bistline a one-day sentence, citing the 70-year-old Bistline’s age and his and his wife’s health problems.

The federal appellate court is sending the case to a different judge for re-sentencing.