United States v. Mirsad Ramic

── United States v. Mirsad Ramic ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Date: May 13, 2026 Category: General RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 26a0144p.06 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT ┐ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, │ Plaintiff-Appellee/Cross-Appellant, │ > Nos. 25-5392/5471 │ v. │ │ MIRSAD RAMIC, │ Defendant-Appellant/Cross-Appellee. │ ┘ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky at Bowling Green. No. 1:21-cr-00013-1—Gregory N. Stivers, District Judge. Argued: April 30, 2026 Decided and Filed: May 13, 2026 Before: GIBBONS, THAPAR, and LARSEN, Circuit Judges. _________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: Joshua M. Reho, WESTERN KENTUCKY FEDERAL COMMUNITY DEFENDER, INC., Louisville, Kentucky for Mirsad Ramic. Amanda E. Gregory, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Louisville, Kentucky, for the United States. ON BRIEF: Frank W. Heft, Jr., Scott T. Wendelsdorf, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL DEFENDER, Louisville, Kentucky, for Mirsad Ramic. Amanda E. Gregory, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Louisville, Kentucky, for the United States. _________________ OPINION _________________ 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  Nos. 25-5392/5471 United States v. Ramic Page 2 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. I. Mirsad Ramic grew up in Bosnia during a civil war. That conflict involved genocide and war crimes targeted at minority groups, including Bosnian Muslims like Ramic and his family. In fact, Ramic’s father was killed during this conflict. So once the war concluded, the United States offered Ramic and his family a fresh start by granting them refugee status. Ramic’s family ultimately settled in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a city with a vibrant population of other Bosnian refugees. Eventually, Ramic became a naturalized U.S. citizen, but he was unhappy with his American life. Ra