Marc Knapp, who was the subject of this earlier post and this second one, was sentenced to 46 months yesterday following his guilty plea on charges that he attempted to export an F-5 fighter jet and other defense articles to Iran. If you read those earlier posts, you will recall that Knapp and his attorney initially attempted to justify the attempted sale of the F-5 to Iran on the grounds that the jet, which was owned by a man who had been renting it out as a movie prop, would be shot down immediately by U.S. jets if Iran ever tried to deploy the aircraft. When Knapp’s attorney finally read the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and discovered that there was no defense provided for exports of outdated and less effective defense articles, Knapp decided to plead guilty.

After his guilty plea, Knapp was subject to a possible sentence of up to 30 years. The prosecution recommended a sentence of no more than 57 months, and the judge abided by that recommendation by sentencing Knapp to 46 months. The judge may well have been influenced to take 11 months off that recommendation by the defendant’s expression of remorse. Before sentencing, Knapp said that “he did not know at the time he was selling the items that it would be harmful to the U.S., but upon reflection in jail … he realized that it was detrimental to the U.S.” Although Knapp has been in jail since July 2010, he will only receive a credit of up to 150 days for time served.

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