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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.
Feds giving money to states to track sex offenders
Posted on April 18, 2008According to all the local stories linked below, this week a number of states got grants from the federal government to assist with sex offender tracking: From the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, State receives approval of grant to track sex offenders...
A constitutional crack bleg from an attorney of note
Posted on April 17, 2008I got a call from a notable attorney who asked for help on a crack-related claim of unconstitutionality. Here is his follow-up "bleg": As I stated today in our telephone call, I was Brian Gall's trial attorney and want to...
Will the FLDS case impact perceptions of child rape and sex offenders?
Posted on April 17, 2008Over at Grits for Breakfast, Scott has been doing effective coverage of the FLDS case, including this interesting post asserting that "more law blawggers need to weigh in on West Texas polygamy case." Though I won't fault other law bloggers...
The post-Baze uncertainty and litigation begins
Posted on April 17, 2008As detailed in this effective post at SCOTUSblog, the post-Baze uncertainty and litigation has started before the ink on the Baze ruling is even dry. Here are snippets from the SCOTUSblog post: The state of Florida moved quickly on Thursday...
No delay for Snipes sentencing
Posted on April 17, 2008For lots of reasons detailed in prior posts, I am really looking forward Wesley Snipes' sentencing on tax evasion charges next week. Thus, I was pleased to see this new news on this front: A federal judge has rejected a...
Washington Supreme Court rebuffs SCOTUS approach to Blakely harmless error
Posted on April 17, 2008Nearly two years ago in Recuenco v. Washington (discussed here and here), the US Supreme Court declared that violations of Blakely rights could be subject to harmless error. Thanks to an alert reader, I learned that today the Washington Supreme...
Federal prisoners do the darndest things
Posted on April 17, 2008This AP story, headlined "Texas prison inmate cons way onto Idaho primary ballot," seems ripe for use in a late-night talk-show monologue. Here are the basics: A federal prison inmate who once gave an Internal Revenue Service line in Ohio...
Lots of good sentencing buzz around the blogosphere
Posted on April 17, 2008Not surprisingly given all the recent SCOTUS action and other happenings, a number of my favorite blogs have lots of posts worth checking out. Specifically, there is lots of new and interesting reading at: Capital Defense Weekly Concurring Opinions Crime...
Focused analysis of distraction of Kennedy case
Posted on April 17, 2008Writing at FindLaw, Marci Hamilton has this new piece entitled "The Supreme Court Considers Whether Imposing the Death Penalty for Child Rape Is Constitutional: The Arguments For and Against the Penalty." Though focused mainly on the arguments presented to the...
Media round-up in wake of Baze
Posted on April 16, 2008How Appealing collects here a lot of the national media reaction to the Supreme Court's work in the Baze lethal injection case decided today. And, with the help of Google News, I can provide links to local stories suggesting that...
The latest views of the Kennedy capital child rape case
Posted on April 16, 2008Providing more grist for the mill (and for the printer), the transcript of today's Supreme Court argument in the capital child rape case of Kennedy v. Louisiana is available at this link. Corey Yung is doing an extraordinary job covering...
A taxing analysis of celebrity sentencing issue in US v. Snipes
Posted on April 16, 2008Writing over at Slate's Convictions, David Feige has this interesting post highlight that the "impending sentencing of Wesley Snipes on his misdemeanor tax convictions nicely frames an interesting question about celebrity and sentencing." Here are snippets from this post: Basically,...
Lots of praise for Baze and for capital punishment federalism
Posted on April 16, 2008I suspect the nearly 100-page Baze lethal injection ruling from SCOTUS today will be subject to a lot of criticism, in part because the array of disparate opinions provide lots of fodder for anyone who want to beat up on...
Creative sentencing for T.I. creates concerns
Posted on April 13, 2008As detailed in this Atlanta Journal-Constitution article, the creative sentence engineered for the rapper T.I. is creating a stir. Here is the start of the article: Both were felons caught with guns. Popular rapper T.I. was sentenced to a year...
SCOTUS sentencing cases involve unusual advocates
Posted on April 13, 2008Writing in the Legal Times, Tony Mauro has this interesting piece headlined, "Supreme Court Justices Turn to Ex-Clerks for Unusual Role: Former clerks tapped to make the arguments others have abandoned." Here is how it starts: On Jan. 7, Jay...
Effective NYT editorial on Second Chance Act
Posted on April 12, 2008Today's New York Times has this effective editorial discussing this week's big news of the Second Chance Act finally becoming law. Here is a snippet: The compassion and bipartisanship that President Bush promised in the 2000 election campaign made a....
So much in (and missing from) Senator Clinton's anti-crime proposal
Posted on April 11, 2008As first noted here, Senator Clinton proposed to spend $4 billion a year on anti-crime measures in a big speech in Philadelphia today. Details on her proposal are now available in this loooong press release on her website. Interestingly, the...
Sixth Circuit splits on the substantive unreasonableness of probation sentence in fraud case
Posted on April 11, 2008Today in US v. Hunt, No. 06-6300 (6th Cir. April 11, 2008) (available here), a panel of the Sixth Circuit splits over the substantive reasonableness of a probation sentence in a fraud case. Here is one notable passage from the...
Lots of new goodies from the USSC
Posted on April 11, 2008Just in time for a Masterful weekend, the US Sentencing Commission has this set of exciting new items posted on its official website: Public Comment on Proposed Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines: The Commission received comment from the judiciary, the...
Notable new Fifth Circuit opinion on post-Gall sentence review
Posted on April 11, 2008A helpful reader pointed me to the Fifth Circuit's work in United States v. Bonilla, No. 06-40894 (5th Cir. Apr. 10, 2008) (available here) which was released just today and grapples with the sentencing process the Supreme Court laid out...
Senator Clinton making a campaign offensive on crime
Posted on April 11, 2008A helpful reader pointed me to this exciting news from the presidential campaign trail: Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing to spend $4 billion a year on anti-crime measures, including programs meant to reduce the number of ex-convicts who return...
Notable new Urban Institute report on treating drug-involved offenders
Posted on April 11, 2008A helpful reader pointed me to a new report from the Urban Institute, titled "To Treat or Not to Treat: Evidence on the Prospects of Expanding Treatment to Drug-Involved Offenders." The full report is available at this link, and here...
Why is the Senate wasting time with a capital counsel hearing?
Posted on April 10, 2008As detailed here, a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held a hearing earlier this week on "The Adequacy of Representation in Capital Cases." Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) presided over the hearing, and here is the start of his statement at the start...
Some media coverage of the Second Chance Act
Posted on April 10, 2008The signing by President Bush of the federal Second Chance Act has generated a wide array of press coverage, with various outlets having different focal points for their coverage. Consider these different headlines from the different sources: Bush Signs Substance...
Pew publication on incarceration's impact on crime
Posted on April 10, 2008I just received this news of the latest publication from the Pew Public Safety Performance Project, titled ?The Impact of Incarceration on Crime: Two National Experts Weigh In.? The short document can be accessed at this link, and here is...
Electrifying capital issue from Nebraska (on path to GVR?)
Posted on April 10, 2008This local story provides this electrifying news about Nebraska's death penalty system: The Nebraska Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to reconsider its decision that electrocution is unconstitutional. The decision was handed down by the court in response to Attorney General...
Military man gets break at federal sentencing
Posted on April 10, 2008Regular readers know that I support giving defendants credit for prior good works at sentencing, in part because they always gets discredit for prior bad works in the form of criminal history enhancements. For this reason, I found this local...
Interesting debate over what a PSR is all about
Posted on April 10, 2008As highlighted here at How Appealing, the Ninth Circuit yesterday rejected rehearing en banc of decision immunizing from prosecution under 18 U.S.C. sec. 1001 false statements made by a criminal defendant to a probation officer preparing that defendant's presentence report...
If only there was a sentencing chapter....
Posted on April 09, 2008I might be able to justify buying this book as a business expense. Instead, I will just use the fact that we are only a few hours away from the start of the greatest golf event of the season as...
Official coverage of President Bush signing the Second Chance Act
Posted on April 09, 2008Now available on the White House's official website is this press release with the heading, "President Bush Signs H.R. 1593, the Second Chance Act of 2007." Here are a few excerpts from the statements of the President of the United...
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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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