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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.
"Shaming and scaring johns into becoming average joes"
Posted on February 26, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this interesting article in today's Los Angeles Times. The sub-title of this article describes the basics: "L.A. tests a program for men caught soliciting prostitutes, giving them some reasons not to...
After winning SCOTUS battle, Danforth loses state retroactivity war
Posted on February 26, 2009As habeas fans know, last year the Supreme Court held in Danforth that state courts were not obligated to apply the federal habeas standards of Teague when deciding whether to give constitutional rulings retroactive effects. This important victory for defendant...
Looking for hope and change in the DOJ part of the Obama budget
Posted on February 26, 2009Via whitehouse.gov, I discovered that the full text of the budget for Fiscal Year 2010 is on the website of the Office of Management and Budget. And here is a link to a few pages discussing funding for the Department...
Great new (though still dated) examination of the death penalty and plea bargaining
Posted on February 26, 2009Regular readers know that I often note the failure of others to note and consider the potential impact of the death penalty on plea practices. Excitingly, Kent Scheidegger of the Criminal Justice Legal Foundation has now focused attention on this...
Deafening silence from the gun rights crowd about Hayes
Posted on February 26, 2009With the Supreme Court's Hayes gun possession decision now a few days old, I cannot help but note that none of the prominent gun rights groups or pundits have said boo about the decision. Whenever there is talk of a...
Justice Breyer talking up Rule of Lenity when interpreting statutes with mandatory minimum sentencing terms
Posted on February 26, 2009As detailed in this recent post, the Supreme Court yesterday heard oral argument in Flores-Figueroa v. United States, which deals with the reach of the federal aggravated identity theft statute. When first scanning the oral argument transcript, these comments from...
"Time For Marijuana Legalization?"
Posted on February 25, 2009The title of this post is the question being asked here by CBS News analyst Andrew Cohen. Cohen picks up on the latest discussion of the costs of the death penalty to take the idea of criminal justice reform in...
New York's highest court rejects again Sixth Amendment challenge to its persistent felony offfender law
Posted on February 25, 2009A helpful reader alerted me to a new opinion from the New York Court of Appeals, which turns down yet again a Sixth Amendment attack on New York's persistent felony offender sentencing scheme. Here is how the unanimous opinion in...
En banc Tenth Circuit reinstates insider trading conviction of former Qwest CEO Nacchio
Posted on February 25, 2009Though not technically a sentencing ruling, the white-collar sentencing world should surely take note of the Tenth Circuit's decision today, via a 5-4 en banc ruling, to reinstate Joe Nacchio's federal criminal insider trading conviction. This post from the WSJ...
Given Hayes, can jurisdictions criminalize gun possession by any misdemeanant?
Posted on February 25, 2009The failure of any Justice to even mention the Second Amendment or Heller or the statutory interpretation canon of constitutional doubt in Hayes (basics here and here) has me wondering how far jurisdictions can go in categorically criminalizing gun possession...
Federal judge imposes large restitution punishment for downloading child porn
Posted on February 25, 2009Thanks to this post by Jonathan Turley, I just discovered this local article from Connecticut about a ground-breaking new type of federal sentence for downloading child porn. Here are the basics: Connecticut has set a new precedent for people who...
SCOTUS argument today on intriguing federal criminal statute
Posted on February 25, 2009Continuing a Term in which it is considering a whole bunch of federal criminal statutory interpretation questions, the Supreme Court today will hear argument in Flores-Figueroa v. United States. This entry at SCOTUSwiki provides an effective account of the basic...
More questions and fall-out following Judge Kent's guilty plea
Posted on February 25, 2009I am most interested in the plea and sentencing issues in light of the ugliness surrounding the crimes and prosecution of now-former federal district judge Samuel Kent (basics here). But, as detailed in these stories, this notable case stirs up...
Yet another notable written opinion in a federal child porn downloading case
Posted on February 24, 2009I received this afternoon yet another fascinating district court opinion concerning sentencing in a federal child porn downloading case. In US v. Beiermann, No. CR 07-4018-MWB (N.D. Iowa Feb. 24, 2009) (available for download below), the defendant faced a guideline...
Eleventh Circuit holds erroneous sentencing does not violate a constitutional right
Posted on February 24, 2009I have long thought that being sentenced to a longer prison term than is legally appopriate would constitute a violation of a constitutionally protected liberty interest. But a short opinion from the Eleventh Circuit today in Hunter v. US, No....
Even the Chief and Justice Scalia are content to damn gun possession with faint praise
Posted on February 24, 2009I have now read the Supreme Court's work in the Hayes gun possession case, and it confirms my sense that none of the Justices (even those who championed individual Second Amendment rights in Heller)have any interest in giving real force...
New CVRA circuit filing in big environmental case
Posted on February 24, 2009Anyone interested in crime victims rights and the scope and application of the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act will want to keep a close eye on the high-profile environmental case involving the the criminal trial of W.R. Grace in Montana....
More notable local news from the business pages of prison nation
Posted on February 24, 2009Regular readers know my favorite modern political mantra: "It's the prison economy, stupid." The latest opportunity to chant this mantra arises in connection with this local article from Colorado, headlined "State senator keeps Rifle prison open to protect local economy...
"Is Kent getting off easy?"
Posted on February 24, 2009The title of this post is the title of this piece in today's Houston Chronicle. As highlighted in this post on the Kent case yesterday, I think the answer to this question is a tentative "yes" right now. Here is...
SCOTUS undercuts constitutional gun rights in Hayes without even mentioning Heller or Second Amendment
Posted on February 24, 2009As regular readers know, I have been watching the Hayescase involving a federal statute prohibiting gun possession by certain misdemeanants as a potential Second Amendment sleeper case. And today the Supreme Court decided Hayes and kept the Second Amendment sleeping...
Different debates about death penalty in statehouses
Posted on February 24, 2009The stories of legislative reform of the death penalty in different states remains amazingly dynamic as evidenced by these stories in today's papers: Alaska House committee debates death penalty House panel backs bill banning death penalty in Colorado In Alaska,...
One notable expression of concern about Hayes and gun rights
Posted on February 24, 2009As of this writing, I have yet to see any public comments on the Hayes gun crime decision from the National Rifle Association or Second Amendment Foundation or on prominent legal blogs like Instapundit and The Volokh Conspiracy. But I...
More discussion of cost concerns in debates over the death penalty
Posted on February 24, 2009FOXNews has this new article on capital punishment's costs, headlined "Lawmakers Cite Economic Crisis in Effort to Ban Death Penalty: A number of state legislators are citing the country's economic woes as a reason to overturn capital punishment laws...
GPS tracking confirms, but does prevent, murder of teen by sex offender
Posted on February 24, 2009Though GPS tracking might seem to hold great promise for regulating the activities of certain dangerous offenders upon their release from prison, this local story from Oregon highlights why this technology is not a panacea: A GPS tracking unit that...
Federal sentences imposed on cops after deadly collateral damage from the drug war
Posted on February 24, 2009As detailed in this CNN report, a trio of "former Atlanta police officers were sentenced Tuesday to prison terms ranging from five to 10 years for covering up a botched drug raid in which a 92-year-old woman was killed." In...
What's up with all the SCOTUS capital case cert grants from the Sixth Circuit?
Posted on February 23, 2009There are lots of interesting issues to be mined from the group of criminal cases that the Supreme Court accepted for review today (basic details here). But among the stories lurking therein is the Justices' continuing interest in capital cases...
A CRS report on "Sentencing Levels for Crack and Powder Cocaine"
Posted on February 23, 2009I just recived a pdf copy of a report recently issued by the Congressional Research Service, titled "Sentencing Levels for Crack and Powder Cocaine in Light of Kimbrough and the Impact of Booker." This document, which can be downloaded below,...
Can anyone report on Judge Samuel Kent's sentencing record?
Posted on February 23, 2009Before diving even further into all the interesting sentencing issues raised by U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent's guilty plea (basics here), I thought it might be useful to hear about Judge Kent's record as a sentencing judge. Because the US...
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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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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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