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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.
Federal prisoner provides clemency test for a compassionate conservative
Posted on March 22, 2008This AP story provides the latest news on the heart-wrenching story of the Yeagers first discussed here. Here are the details: A federal inmate is asking President Bush for clemency so he can be with his daughter, who's dying of...
Show me support for capital child rape laws
Posted on March 22, 2008As detailed in this official press release, "Gov. Matt Blunt and members of the Missouri General Assembly filed a brief with the U.S Supreme Court today in support of a Louisiana law allowing the death penalty as an appropriate form...
Too much great stuff around the blogosphere
Posted on March 22, 2008Here are lots of posts (with lots of questions and food for weekend thought) from some of my regular reads: From Balkinization, "Strict Scrutiny for Second Amendment Rights?" From Concurring Opinions, "Is Baseball the Fairest Sport?" From Convictions, "Two Strikes...
More great (NCAA) sentencing reading from SSRN
Posted on March 21, 2008A bunch of new pieces on SSRN seem worthy of a weekend look, especially if (when?) your bracket blows up. Here are the titles and links: Against Judgment by Katherine Barnes Naïve Cynicism: Maintaining False Perceptions in Policy Debates by...
How do sophisticated lawyers negotiate sentencing terms?
Posted on March 21, 2008The WSJ Law Blog here and here provides effective coverage and links concerning famed lawyer Mel Weiss's decision to enter a deal to agree to plead guilty in a case alleging improper kickbacks. The plea deal can be accessed here,...
Notable new journal with some innovative weekend reading
Posted on March 21, 2008I just got an e-mail announcing an interesting new journal than would-be criminal justice reformers will want to be sure to check out. Here is the text of the e-mail with links: I'm writing to announce the publication of the...
Some (final?) thoughts on politics, prosecution and punishment
Posted on March 21, 2008Reviewing today's headlines in the New York Times in my in-box, these two indirectly related items seemed to justify some criminal justice reflection and commentary: From the front page: U.S. Defends Tough Tactics With Spitzer: "The Justice Department used some...
Around the blogosphere
Posted on March 20, 2008Lots of good new stuff for sentencing fans at: Capital Defense Weekly Crime and Consequences Grits for Breakfast Pardon Power White Collar Crime Prof
Should dying child justify a federal sentencing break?
Posted on March 20, 2008A helpful reader sent me this remarkable local story that has to make every sentencing theorist (not to mention ever federal prison official) think hard about modern notions of justice and mercy: The story of a 10-year-old Lincoln girl who...
Sentencing justice through collateral consequences?
Posted on March 20, 2008I encourage readers to comment on whether they feel as though justice has now been (better?) served in light of this AP story: Former top White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was banned Thursday from practicing law in the...
A tough sentence (but not tough enough?) for tenth DWI offense
Posted on March 20, 2008Regular readers know that I am often complaining that repeat drunk drivers often do not seem to get tough enough sentences. So I was pleased to get this local story from Texas about one state sentencing judge finally getting really...
Important report from NC about (not) implementing new crack guidelines
Posted on March 20, 2008This Charlotte Observer story, headlined "N.C. slow to cut crack sentences," provides a fascinating account of the challenges in implementing the new retroactive crack sentencing guidelines. Here are snippets from a must-read (with key points for commentary in bold): Federal...
Effective reports on sex offending
Posted on March 19, 2008As detailed here, the Deseret Morning News (in Utah) has published a four-part series on sex offending. Here is how they describe the series and links to the article: Deseret Morning News reporters Lucinda Dillon Kinkead and Dennis Romboy spent...
Great new paper on prosecutorial choices in Mizzou
Posted on March 19, 2008This new paper from SSRN provides fitting companion reading to today's Supreme Court work in Snyder (basics here). The piece is entitled "Life and Death Decisions: Prosecutorial Discretion and Capital Punishment in Missouri," and here is the abstract: This article...
SCOTUS overturns "OJ death sentence" in Snyder
Posted on March 19, 2008As detailed here at SCOTUSblog, "Supreme Court ruled 7-2 on Wednesday that the trial judge in a Louisiana murder case ? one that involved a prosecutor?s use of the O.J. Simpson case to try to help win a death sentence...
Is the editorial board of the Denver Post omniscient or just obtuse?
Posted on March 19, 2008Commenting on a Colorado bill that proposes making a second offense of child rape a capital offense, this Denver Post editorial boldly asserts in its headline that "Death penalty for rape doesn't protect children." Tellingly, the text of the editorial...
Some new poll numbers on the death penalty
Posted on March 18, 2008This press release reports on some new national poll numbers concerning American attitudes concerning the death penalty. Here are some of the interesting highlights: Over the past few years there have been many high profile cases where those on death...
Imagining post-Heller federal felon-in-possession litigation
Posted on March 18, 2008I want to unpack a little more fully the basis for my post-Heller argument post, titled "Get ready for a Second Amendment rumble, defense attorneys." That post was largely inspired by the fact that, as Lyle Denniston puts it here,...
Busta Rhymes doesn't have to worry about bustin' out
Posted on March 18, 2008As detailed in this AP report, a "judge sentenced Busta Rhymes to three years' probation Tuesday for assaulting his former driver and a fan, and warned the rapper to stay out of trouble." Here are more details: The 35-year-old Rhymes,...
Looking at capital child rape's constitutionality through the Atkins/Roper lens
Posted on March 18, 2008Over at CrimProf, Mike Mannheimer has this great extended post titled "Role Reversal in Kennedy v. Louisiana: Or What's Sauce for the Goose . . . ." Here are snippets from the start of the post: Last night, the death...
Get ready for a Second Amendment rumble, defense attorneys
Posted on March 18, 2008In what I view to be good news for federal criminal defense attorneys, it appears from today's oral argument that the Supreme Court may be headed toward recognizing an individual right to armed self-defense protected by the Second Amendment. Here...
Yet another analysis of Booker's real import
Posted on March 18, 2008Now available on SSRN at this link is another piece of scholarship trying to give coherent shape and meaning to the Supreme Court's work in Booker and its progeny. This piece is titled "Re-Conceptualizing Booker: How to Stop Legislatures from...
Colorado's struggle with prison overcrowding
Posted on March 17, 2008Here are excertps from another (all-too-common) story of a state struggling to figure out what to do about its growing prison population: Colorado will be more than 4,600 prison beds short by 2014 if it does not start immediately on...
Some questions I hope get asked in Heller
Posted on March 17, 2008Regular readers know I find the Heller Second Amendment case really interesting, though mostly for sentencing reasons few (if any) of the pundits are even aware of. Specifically, because many link the right to keep and bear arms to a...
Slate starts impressive (and confusing) new blog called "Convictions"
Posted on March 17, 2008I got the news today that Slate.com has launched a group legal blog, called Convictions. According this this post at Volokh by Orin Kerr, the blog boasts this amazing group of contributors: Ben Wittes, David Barron, Deb Pearlstein, Adam White,...
SCOTUS getting busy (though I doubt summer vacations are at risk)
Posted on March 17, 2008Over at SCOTUSblog, Jason Harrow has this new post spotlighting that the Justices appear to be on pace for taking more cases next Term than in recent years. Here are snippets: [T]he rate that the Court is granting cases [is]...
Corporate executives helping with reentry in New York
Posted on March 17, 2008This article in today's Wall Street Journal, headlined "Executives Teach Inmates How to Be Employees," spotlights that the reentry movement can be aided by, and benefits from the involvement of, all types of people. Here is how the article starts:...
Conviction of Qwest's Nacchio reversed on appeal, could Enron's Skilling be next?
Posted on March 17, 2008Though technically not about sentencing, it is relevant to the white-collar sentencing world that (according to this WSJ report), "the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver has ordered a retrial of former Qwest head Joseph Nacchio...
Looooong Second Circuit ruling finds below-guideline sentences unreasonable
Posted on March 17, 2008In a long opinion that discusses Booker and Gall at length, the Second Circuit today in US v. Cutler, No. 05-2516 (2d Cir. Mar. 17, 2008) (available here), reverses a pair of below-guideline sentences as both procedurally and substantively unreasonable...
Perhaps federal defendants should consider taking the name "64,695 pounds of skark fins" . . .
Posted on March 17, 2008. . . because, as detailed in a case handed down today, US v Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins, No. No. 05-56274 (9th Cir. Mar. 17, 2008) (available here), over 32 tons of shark fins managed to prevail with...
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Eminent domain, demographics and immigration policy
On the face of it, you may be wondering what eminent domain,...
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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