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Sentencing Law and Policy 
News, issues, commentary and provides resources related to sentencing law and policy.
Post Frequency: 77.7/day Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 10:54:24 Recent Entries: 4815
By Douglas A. Berman
Go to Sentencing Law and Policy, find other Criminal Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
"Why is use of the death penalty going down?"
Posted on December 20, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this piece from The Christian Science Monitor. Here is how it begins: Fewer people received a death sentence over the past 12 months than in any year since 1976 ? the...
Potent punishments for ponzi players after Madoff mess
Posted on December 20, 2009This local article from Florida, which is headlined " Ponzi convictions are weightier now," provides an effective window into the modern dynamics surrounding sentencing for a certain class of white collar offenders. Here is how the effective article starts: It's...
Deep thoughts (and a great title) concerning drug and vice crimes
Posted on December 19, 2009This article available via SSRN attracted my attention based just on its title, which is "Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll and Moral Dirigisme: Toward a Reformation of Drug and Prostitution Regulations." And, as this part of the abstract highlights, there...
Should autism provide a basis for a reduced federal sentence?
Posted on December 19, 2009The question in the title of this post is prompted by this news story about a prominent cyber criminal, which is headlined "Hacker claims form of autism, seeks lean sentence." Here are the details: One of the world's most notorious...
Thoughts on 2010 SCOTUS sentencing sleeper cases (or dicta)?
Posted on December 18, 2009Today's topic for conversation as I head off-line for a while is whether 2010 will bring us some big time "sleeper" rulings from the Supreme Court on sentencing issues. We can easily predict that the juve LWOP Eighth Amendment cases...
DPIC releases year-end report on the death penalty in 2009
Posted on December 18, 2009As detailed in this press release, the Death Penalty Information Center has just released its latest end-of-year report on death penalty developments. Here is how the press release describes the highlights of this new report, which is titled ?The Death...
What are the biggest sentencing stories of the last year and decade?
Posted on December 17, 2009One cannot avoid "biggest" and "best" stories and lists this time of year, and this year we are also seeing discussion of the biggest and best of the decade as well as of 2009. Especially since I am going to...
North Carolina law that excluded sex offender from church declared unconstitutional
Posted on December 17, 2009This local article reports on a notable new ruling declaring unconstitutional certain restriction placed on sex offenders in North Carolina. Here are the details: A North Carolina law that limits sex offenders' ability to worship unconstitutional, a judge ruled Thursday...
"Haley Barbour's Bizarre Pardon Record"
Posted on December 17, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this potent new piece by Radley Balko at Slate. Here is how the piece begins: Mike Huckabee took a beating from his conservative brethren last month after Maurice Clemmons, a man...
Local thoughts about sentences for local politicians
Posted on December 17, 2009The Baltimore Sun and the New York Daily News today have these pieces about some of the sentencing dynamics surround the upcoming sentencing of local politicians who have recently been convicted of wrong-doing: What's appropriate sentence for Dixon? Bruno will...
"Going Robe: Obama's judicial appointment strategy isn't working; Here's a better one"
Posted on December 17, 2009The title of this post is the title of this piece by Prof. David Fontana at The New Republic. Here are excerpts: Obama's federal appellate nominees have been generally moderate, safe choices. A majority of them have served as prosecutors...
Will (and should) Ohio's one-drug success impact Delaware lethal injection litigation?
Posted on December 16, 2009The question in the title of this post is prompted by this local news story out of Delaware, which is headlined "Appeals Court to hear suit on execution procedures." Here is how it gets started: The class-action lawsuit that has...
Notable and insightful Blakely habeas ruling from the Sixth Circuit
Posted on December 16, 2009The Sixth Circuit has an effective little panel decision today in a habeas case concerning the application of Blakely to Ohio sentencing law. The ruling in Arias v. Hudson, No. 08-4513 (6th Cir. Dec. 16, 2009) (available here), has many...
The now-quite-common dollars and sentencing debate taking place in Arizona
Posted on December 16, 2009A down economy and tight state budgets has prompted nearly all states to confront the critical and valuable issue of how public safety can be maintained or improved at less cost. This local article from Arizona, which is headlined "House...
AG Holder spotlights the important connection between family values and public safety
Posted on December 16, 2009I was pleased to see some important family-value themes stressed in this new speech by Attorney General Eric Holder at the "Fatherhood Town Hall" in Atlanta. Here are some of the highlights for criminal justice fans: More than 1.5 million...
Planned prisoner transfer getting lots of attention...
Posted on December 16, 2009because it involves moving the terror suspects from Gitmo to Illinois. How Appealing collected links to much of the major news coverage in this post yesterday, and today a lot of the buzz is about political debates (and posturing) surrounding...
Georgia Supreme Court halts final scheduled execution for 2009
Posted on December 16, 2009This new piece from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which is headlined "Georgia Supreme Court halts Carlton Gary's execution," reports that the last execution scheduled for 2009 was put on hold this afternoon: The Georgia Supreme Court on Wednesday halted the execution...
Reduced prison sentence in Florida reveals that clemency is not completely dead
Posted on December 16, 2009Especially in the wake of all the bad press that the concept of clemency has received after the horrible crimes of Maurice Clemens, I am pleased to see this notable new clemency story out of Florida. Here are the details:...
Some notable recent reasonableness rulings from the circuits
Posted on December 16, 2009Though not seeming to break any significant new ground, two recent reasonableness review affirmances and two recent reasonableness review reversals seem worth noting this afternoon: The First Circuit, in US v. Zapata, No. 08-1554 (1st Cir. Dec. 16, 2009) (available...
A SCOTUS criminal justice term to remember (and the impact of Justice Sotomayor?)
Posted on December 15, 2009With the addition of three new criminal justice cases to its docket yesterday (details here), the Supreme Court has further ensured that many of the biggest stories from the current Term are going to involve criminal justice issues. I noted...
"Purple Hearts On Death Row: War Damaged Vets Should Not Be Executed By the State"
Posted on December 15, 2009Thanks to a reference from Death Penalty Information Center, I just came across this commentaryby By Karl Keys and Bill Pelke which has the title that appears in the heading of this post. Here are excerpts: Mental exhaustion. Battle fatigue....
Two notable new sentencing notes in the Michigan Law Review
Posted on December 15, 2009The latest issue of the Michigan Law Review includes these two notes that sentencing fans will want to check out: Evaluating Punishment in Purgatory: The Need to Separate Pretrial Detainees' Conditions-of-Confinement Claims from Inadequate Eighth Amendment Analysis Commentary: "Once Victim,...
A distinctively eastern approach to alternative sentencing in Missouri
Posted on December 15, 2009A helpful reader forwarded to me this interesting story from the Washington Post which is headlined "From incarceration to meditation in Missouri: For 14 years, guru has run alternative program for parolees." Here is how the piece gets started: It...
Terrific reporting on prosecutorial declinations and prosecutor elections
Posted on December 14, 2009Thanks to a helpful reader, I discovered a pair of remarkable pieces about the work of state prosecutors from the Waco Tribune-Heraldunder the banner "Measuring Justice." Here are links to the pieces and their openings: "Data offer clues on McLennan....
Bad judges, bad judges . . . whatcha gonna do?
Posted on December 14, 2009The lyrical title of this post and the movie posted were inspired by these two articles in the Houston Chronicle today: "Judging the judges: Does secret process let errant jurists get away with breaking the law?" "Despite troubles, some on...
SCOTUS grants cert on three new (sort-of) criminal justice cases
Posted on December 14, 2009As detailed in this SCOTUSblog post, this morning the Supreme Court grant cert on three new cases. Here is the SCOTUSblog description of the new grants: The three newly granted cases raised these issues: whether the Fourth Amendment protects the...
A fitting and overdue call for "conservatives to take ownership of prison reform"
Posted on December 14, 2009This op-ed by Ross Douthat in today's New York Times, which is titled "Prisons of Our Own Making," is the best and most-important piece of post-Clemmons commentary I have seen in the weeks since Mike Huckabee has been pilloried for...
First Circuit dismisses government sentencing appeal with peculiar request
Posted on December 14, 2009I enjoy sentencing law and policy because it is often an effective setting for the exercise of lawyerly creativity in the pursuit of substantive justice. But a First Circuit ruling today in US v. Giggey, No. 09-1542 (1st Cir. Dec....
Notable coverage of efforts in Michigan to reform state's sex offender registry
Posted on December 14, 2009As my copious blog posts today reveal, there seems to be a lot of especially good reading for sentencing fans in the newspapers today. And here are two notable pieces from Michigan discussing sex offender registries to add to the...
Fascinating report on New York's broken juve prison system
Posted on December 14, 2009After beating up on the New York Times' editorial work here, I must give the Old Gray Lady props for this potent front-page story about New York's prison system for juvenile offenders. The piece is headlined "New York Finds Extreme...
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you should be getting a mileage comp. I own my own company and I pay my employee...
Can i sue my employer for breach of Contract?
i would suggest you get professional advice
from what you have put here yo...
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I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
Does failure to provide health insurance benefits at the time promised constitute harm to the employee?
Yes. Failure to provide health insurance benefits is a violation of Labor Law ob...
My job requires me to drive bank deposits up to two times a day using my own vehicle and gas. Although not too far, can should I be receiving compensation? One deposit run is required daily by company policy, but the man
you should be getting a mileage comp. I own my own company and I pay my employee...
Can i sue my employer for breach of Contract?
i would suggest you get professional advice
from what you have put here yo...
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