Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Fascinating assessment of federal sentencing in DOJ annual letter ot Sentencing Commission

By Douglas A. Berman

A very kind reader sent me a copy of the letter sent by the Justice Department's Criminal Division to the US Sentencing Commission commenting on the operation of the federal sentencing guidelines. This letter can be downloaded below, and here is the letter general assessment of post-Booker realities: More than five years after the Supreme Court's decision in Booker v. United States, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), Sentencing Commission data ? and our prosecutors' experience in federal courts across the country ? suggest that federal sentencing practice is fragmenting into at least two distinct and very different sentencing regimes.  On the one hand, there is the federal sentencing regime that remains closely tied to the sentencing guidelines.  This regime includes the cases sentenced by federal judges who continue to impose sentences within the applicable guideline range for most offenders and most offenses...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 11, 2010 (boomark / email).