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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.
Judge Young's latest take on modern federal sentencing dynamics
Posted on May 12, 2008Last week, US District Judge William Young of the District of Massachusetts issued another interesting (and lengthy) opinion about the modern state of federal sentencing in United States v. West, No. 06-10281 (D. Mass. May 7, 2008) (available here). Judge...
What will the new libertarian presidential candidate say about mass incarceration and the drug war?
Posted on May 12, 2008CNN is reporting here that former Republican Representative Bob Barr "formally jumped into the White House race Monday as a candidate for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination." Here's more: Barr, the onetime darling of conservatives who led the impeachment fight...
How many have sought off death row using Atkins?
Posted on May 12, 2008Thanks to How Appealing I saw this intriguing article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer headlined, "Six felons ruled retarded are spared execution." Here are snippets: Six men are likely to die in prison, but not at the hands of an...
Examining the efficacy of sex offender residency restriction
Posted on May 12, 2008A helpful reader pointed me to this new research article, titled "Does Residential Proximity Matter? A Geographic Analysis of Sex Offense Recidivism," appearing in the April 2008 issue of Criminal Justice and Behavior. Here is the abstract: In an effort...
Will pro-gun commentators assail politicians who dis the Second Amendment rights of former felons?
Posted on May 11, 2008In the wake of pro-gun talk on the campaign trail, commentators are noting the new eagerness of Democratic candidates to embrace the Second Amendment. For example, John McCormack has this Weekly Standard piece titled "We're All Gun Nuts Now: The...
Developing a SCOTUS short list of district court judges
Posted on May 11, 2008With this Newsweek essay, headlined "The 2008 Bench Press: The most important decision a president ever makes? It's choosing a Supreme Court nominee," Anna Quindlen reminds us that it is not too early to start obsessing over who might be...
A prison celebration of Mothers' Day
Posted on May 11, 2008This AP article, headlined "Nursery programs allow imprisoned moms, newborns to bond," is fitting for the day. Here is an excerpt: New York has had prison nurseries for more than a century; Washington, Ohio, California and Nebraska started ones in...
Justice Stevens horsing around about lethal injections
Posted on May 10, 2008I headed home early from the Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference, and so I missed Justice Stevens speaking at the big conference dinner. But this local report suggests Justice Stevens was his usual sharp commentor on the legal (and sporting) news...
A telling headline for modern sentencing times
Posted on May 10, 2008This local story from California, carrying the headline "Sex offender faces up to millenium in prison," tellingly reveals so much about modern American attitudes toward incarceration. Here are snippets: A convicted sex offender could be sentenced to more than a...
"Racial Inequity and Drug Arrests"
Posted on May 10, 2008The title of this post is the title of this editorial in today's New York Times. Here are snippets: The United States prison system keeps marking shameful milestones. In late February, the Pew Center on the States released a report...
Weekend SSRN reading (for mom?)
Posted on May 09, 2008A large set of new articles just appeared on the SSRN Corrections and Sentencing list. If mom is a sentencing fanatic, consider printing her out some of these new pieces: Insanity is Smashing Up Against My Soul: Panetti v. Quarterman...
Spinning Baze for lower courts
Posted on May 09, 2008Elisabeth Semel has this new piece in The National Law Journal, headlined "Fearing too much justice," which tries its darnedest to argue that Baze should be viewed by lower courts and state officials not as a green light for resuming...
Tea-leaf analysis of the likely Rodriquez ACCA case outcome
Posted on May 09, 2008Writing over at CO, Anita Krishnakumar takes up my query about what her great ACCA analysis might mean for Rodriquez, the one last notable ACCA case still pending before the Justices. Her thoughtful post highlights the unexpected affiliations that these...
How might state-law-based challenges to lethal injection fare after Baze?
Posted on May 08, 2008One of many interesting aspects of all the lethal injection litigation over the last few years has been the tendency of some state courts to take up challenges to modern execution protocols based primarily on state statutory or constitutional law....
Has quadriplegic been punished enough already?
Posted on May 08, 2008A helpful reader altered me to this fascinating sentencing story out of California. These sad facts provide an extraordinary setting to debate the purposes of punishment (not to mention the purposes of a public trial and the concept of closure):...
Waltzing off to Sixth Circuit judicial conference
Posted on May 08, 2008I am about to hit the road to attend in Tennessee the Sixth Circuit judicial conference, so blogging may be light over the next 48 hours. Tomorrow morning I am on a great panel talking about federal sentencing (though at...
Another great read on the state of federal sentencing
Posted on May 08, 2008The always interesting Mark Osler has this new piece up on SSRN, which goes by the engaging title "Policy, Uniformity, Discretion, and Congress's Sentencing Acid Trip." Here is the abstract: The federal sentencing guidelines have been controversial and widely-criticized since...
Great coverage of Fifth Circuit CVRA ruling in BP case
Posted on May 08, 2008The Houston Chronicle has this terrific article covering yesterday's interesting ruling about the Crime Victims' Rights Act in In Re: Dean, No. 08-20125 (5th Cir. May 7, 2008) (discussed here). Here are excerpts from the article: A federal appeals court...
Another good test case for real fans of the Second Amendment
Posted on May 07, 2008This local story from North Carolina provides more fodder for my view (and hope) that an individual and enforceable Second Amendment right could have lots of unexpected ripples if and when sympathetic felons start demanding that their rights get respected...
A notable and curious (and suspect?) sentence "correction"
Posted on May 07, 2008As detailed in this South Florida Sun-Sentinel article, headlined "Judge resentences Iranian woman, gives her 2 years in prison," something seems a little hinky about a federal judge "correcting" a sentence to add two years' imprisonment to an original sentence...
Notable CVRA ruling from Fifth Circuit in BP case
Posted on May 07, 2008Though apparently not yet posted on the Fifth Circuit website, a friendly reader sent me a copy of the Circuit notable decision today concerning the Crime Victims' Rights Act in In Re: Dean, No. 08-20125 (5th Cir. May 7, 2008)...
Speculating about SCOTUS sleeper cases
Posted on May 07, 2008After this sleepy SCOTUS week, the Justices will be back in action with new opinions likely to be issued each and every week until the end of the Term next month. Constitutional law fans are focused, of course, on what...
Bronx cheer for return of executions
Posted on May 07, 2008As noted here, last night the state of Georgia brought the death penalty back to life in the US by carrying out the first post-Baze execution. The New York Times celebrated the news with this article, tellingly headlined "As Executions...
A day to focus on an execution and politics
Posted on May 06, 2008While most of the media and political world will be focused on voting in Indiana and North Carolina, this new AP article spotlights that death penalty observers will be focused on another state: Georgia moved forward with preparations to execute...
Cooperation discount leads to buzz about DOJ investigating Hill happenings
Posted on May 06, 2008This item from Politico highlights how a massive criminal justice system that encourages cooperation can get a lot of persons nervous real fast, even on Capitol Hill: The news was buried deep in a Page Two story in Saturday?s Washington...
Georgia poised to have first post-Baze lethal injection execution
Posted on May 06, 2008In some future macabre capital punishment version of Trivial Pursuit, the question will surely be asked what state had the first execution after the Supreme Court's lethal injection decision in Baze. Though Texas might make for the best guess to...
Tenth Circuit rejects government appeal of below-guideline sentence
Posted on May 06, 2008In a decision that talks a lot about post-Gall sentencing realities, the Tenth Circuit today affirms a below-guideline sentence in US v. Munoz-Nava, No. 06-2247 (10th Cir. May 6, 2008) (available here). The calculated guideline range in Munoz-Nava was 46-57...
Have pro-defendant rulings gotten Justices Scalia and Thomas thrown off the "Justices like..." list?
Posted on May 06, 2008John McCain has this new statement on judicial selection on his official website. There is a lot of interesting stuff that merits comment, but I was particularly intrigued to see the discussion of the type of Justices he promises to...
Some execution news and notes
Posted on May 05, 2008Two notable death penalty stories have developed this afternoon: 1. As this AP article details, a "Georgia board has denied condemned killer William Earl Lynd's clemency bid, paving the way for him to likely become the nation's first inmate put...
Terrific analysis of Justices' wacka ACCA work
Posted on May 05, 2008Writing over at CO, Anita Krishnakumar has this fantastic new post, titled "Dejá-Vu in Begay v. United States," examining the struggles that the Supreme Court has been having with application of the Armed Career Criminal Act. Here is the "upshot"...
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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?
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