sirrix

Serious question - when you pee, do you pee from both? I imagine that would get tricky at times.

Unfortunately federal sentencing is a really hot topic. If you Google "federal sentencing guidelines reform" you'll see a ton of resources on the topic. The "mandatory minimums" OP refers to are a set of calculations. Even though the judge has sentencing power, s/he may still only sentence within the guidelines for that crime. All kinds of things impact this.

For example, when I was working in a local DA's office, we had someone who was being charged with both state and federal crimes, and we agreed to try the state case after the federal case because had he had the state convictions on his record when the federal case was tried, he would have been required to have a very steep punishment that we felt wasn't necessarily warranted.

It's likely that the nature of the crime, plus any possible issues on his rap sheet, required that the judge sentence in a pretty high range. That said, so long as the judge sentenced within the guidelines, even if it was intentionally on the high end of the guidelines, there is likely no cause for appeal. The presiding judge is given very wide presumptive authority and it's very rare for appeals courts to change that.

It's actually worth mentioning that there are not federal prisons in every state. So while you're right that it's regulation to keep people relatively close to home, if there is no federal facility in your state (such as in Massachusetts) they can really put you almost anywhere. There are a lot of other considerations like overcrowding, security level, gender, etc. There are a lot of issues with the system and where people end up that need to be fixed.

A conspiracy case means that he was charged with being part of the planned operation to traffic and sell the drugs. Finding drugs on someone's person isn't a requirement of that at all - it's merely the intent to engage in the commission of the felonies. They may very well have tried the defendants together (usually this is easier and cheaper for the government because a conspiracy that involves many players would be really tedious to try each case separately since the witnesses and evidence will be largely the same) but that isn't a requirement of a conspiracy case, just the way this one worked out.

I'm visiting Seoul now from the United States. What's the most wonderful thing I should see in Seoul that amazed you after leaving North Korea?