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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.
More on the cool Ice grant and consecutive sentencing Blakely issue
Posted on March 17, 2008In the weeks and months ahead, I will surely blog a lot about the many interesting aspects of the consecutive sentencing Blakely issue that SCOTUS has now taken up in the new Ice case from Oregon (basics here). For now,...
SCOTUS taking up Apprendi/Blakely consecutive sentencing issue
Posted on March 17, 2008I am pleased to report that this morning the Supreme Court has announced that it is taking up another important Apprendi/Blakely issue. From today's SCOTUS order list (which also includes a few Gall and Kimbrough remands), here is the basic...
Another round of lawyers, guns and money
Posted on March 17, 2008I cannot help thinking about the late great Warren Zevon and his great homage to the Cold War as I see all the media buzz over the Heller Second Amendment case to be argued in the Supreme Court tomorrow (lots...
Could tough three-strikes laws increase crime?
Posted on March 16, 2008Thanks to this post at Volokh, I found this notable new paper from a Harvard researcher titled "I'd Rather Be Hanged for a Sheep than a Lamb: The Unintended Consequences of 'Three-Strikes' Laws." Here is the abstract: Strong sentences are...
AG Mukasey going through the sentencing looking glass
Posted on March 16, 2008My last two posts have me really wondering whether being a inside-the-Beltway must be like being in Alice's mixed-up Wonderland. To date, United States Attorney General Michael Mukasey has expressed two notable sentencing viewpoints: (1) in a discussion concerning the...
Op-ed on "Crack-cocaine sentencing injustice"
Posted on March 16, 2008Professor Mark Osler has this new op-ed titled "Crack-cocaine sentencing injustice." Here are snippets: By 1995, hundreds of African-Americans had been prosecuted for crack offenses, but relatively few whites. In 1993, for instance, over 88 percent of the mandatory minimum...
Why the #$@! is AG Mukasey speaking out against execution for 9/11 plotters and suggesting US justice is sadist?
Posted on March 16, 2008I have never quite figured out what's going on with the Justice Department under the leadership of AG Michael Mukasey, but this new piece from ABCNews has me really scratching my head. As reported in the piece, Mukasey is speaking...
Yet another insightful ivory tower view of modern sentencing realities
Posted on March 15, 2008The stack of important academic reading for Blakely and Booker fans gets even longer with this new piece now on SSRN authored by Professors Stephanos Bibas and Susan Klein. This article is simply titled "The Sixth Amendment and Criminal Sentencing,"....
Ninth Circuit (unpublished) reversal for procedural unreasonableness
Posted on March 15, 2008This Los Angeles Times article provides the full story of this unpublished Ninth Circuit ruling, which reverses a below-guideline sentence. Here are details from the LA Times article: Citing procedural error, a federal appeals panel has overturned the controversial sentence...
Great public radio series on prisoner reentry
Posted on March 14, 2008In a week in which the Second Chance Act finally became a reality (details here and here), it is my pleasure to note a great public radio series on prisoner reentry. Here is the e-mail I received discussing the series:...
An interest in public interest at my alma mater
Posted on March 14, 2008I am about to get on a plane for a quick trip to Boston to attend part of this Harvard Law School event, "A Celebration of Public Interest." As might be expected, there is a decidedly elite skew to the...
Louisiana's brief in Kennedy arguing for capital child rape
Posted on March 14, 2008Thanks to Sex Crimes, I now see that Louisiana's merits brief in the Kennedy SCOTUS capital child rape is now available at this link. Here are excerpts from the brief's "summary of argument": The death penalty is not cruel and...
Brennan Lecture on a topic that the Justice surely would have cared about
Posted on March 14, 2008As documented at this official site, Justice Michael Wolff focused on sentencing issues at NYU when giving the 14th Annual Justice Brennan Lecture on State Courts and Social Justice last month. Justice Wolff, who sits on the Missouri Supreme Court...
"The Political Economies of Criminal Justice"
Posted on March 14, 2008The title of this post is the title of this interesting looking article on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Long understood as a specialized branch of law applicable to unambiguously harmful transgressions, criminal law has become instead a mechanism for....
Notable Kimbrough remand from the Eleventh Circuit
Posted on March 13, 2008Anyone trying to track the aftermath of the Supreme Court's ruling in Kimbrough will want to give a close look to the Eleventh Circuit's work today in US v. Stratton, No. 06-10080 (11th Cir. Mar. 13, 2008) (available here). Here...
Good news for criminal defense lawyers who want to run for office?
Posted on March 13, 2008In this post a few weeks ago, I linked to this Newsday article providing a long account of Senator Clinton's work as a criminal defense attorney three decades ago. The Newsday article seemed to be written to provide talking points...
Criminal mistakes in analysis of Heller hysteria
Posted on March 13, 2008With the Supreme Court's oral argument in the Second Amendment Heller case now only a few days away, the lawyer talk about the case is heating up. Of particular note is this new column from Robert Novak suggesting that the...
More on the passage of the Second Chance Act
Posted on March 12, 2008Over in this post at a WSJ blog, Gary Fields reports on the passage of the Second Chance Act: After three years of procedural and legislative delays, a prisoner re-entry bill first introduced in 2005 has cleared the Senate and...
Media continues to cover juve lifers ... will reforms follow?
Posted on March 12, 2008The Christian Science Monitor has this new article, headlined "States reconsider life behind bars for youth; With nearly 2,400 inmates sentenced to life as juveniles, the U.S. is the only nation imposing the mandate on children." Here are excerpts: Here...
Gov Spitzer resigns, though plea deal uncertain
Posted on March 12, 2008CNN has this updated story on NY Gov. Eliot Spitzer's resignation today. Here is a passage from the story that should interest criminal justice fans: Spitzer's lawyers were in discussions Wednesday with the U.S. attorney's office in New York, trying....
Second Chance Act (finally!!) passed by Congress
Posted on March 12, 2008I am pleased to report that, late last night, the Senate approved the Second Chance Act, a long-stalled piece of legislation that should provide significant resources for much-needed reentry services. This press release from the Council of State Governments provides...
Still more local coverage of crack sentence reductions
Posted on March 11, 2008Continuing the regular drumbeat of local reporting on reduced crack sentences, here are stories from Vermont and West Virgina: "Jailed crack offenders from Vermont might be released" "28 Crack Offenders Released in W.Va." I assume that the US Sentencing Commission...
Culture, democracy and vengeance in modern American justice
Posted on March 11, 2008I just received a notice about this new book from Cambridge University Press authored by Kenneth Aladjem and titled "The Culture of Vengeance and the Fate of American Justice." Here is the publisher's teaser for the book: America is driven...
Research and data on prostitution, punishment and shaming sanctions
Posted on March 11, 2008This NPR segment, titled "The Legality of Prostitution," got me wondering about research on prostitution and punishment. The NPR piece referenced this interesting recent paper, titled "An Empirical Analysis of Street-Level Prostitution," which is authored by Steven Levitt and Sudhir...
Colorado moving forward with capital child rape bill
Posted on March 11, 2008I see from this Denver Post story that the Colorado senate is moving forward with a bill to make child rape a capital offense. Here are excepts from the article: Colorado could put child rapists to death under a bill...
Reversing a hot Pepper in the Eighth Circuit
Posted on March 11, 2008The Eighth Circuit today handed down an opinion in US v. Pepper, No. 06-2453 (8th Cir. Mar. 11, 2008) (available here), which highlights the enduring struggle of post-Booker appellate review of sentencing. Here is how the case starts: In United...
Should Prez Bush (or would a Prez Clinton) consider a pardon for Gov Spitzer?
Posted on March 11, 2008Over at Pardon Power, P.S. Ruckman already has this entertaining post talking about Governor Eliot Spitzer and clemency issues. Here is a snippet: Should Gov. Spitzer be convicted (of anything), he stands a much-better-than-average chance of also benefiting from a...
Yet another potent analysis of Booker's structural impact
Posted on March 11, 2008A new piece now on SSRN creates a troika of must-reads about post-Booker sentencing realities (together with the works recently noted by Dan Richman and Michael Simons). This new piece comes from Kate Stith and is titled "The Arc of...
Should being a good tipper get Spitzer a sentencing break?
Posted on March 11, 2008The blogosphere is buzzing about all thing Spitzer, with TalkLeft providing the latest news and Sex Crimes providing a great round-up of commentary. This ABC News story has an array of notable information and comment: A 22-year-old escort found on...
On the topic of high-profile federal prostitution investigations...
Posted on March 10, 2008a reader suggested that I check out this article from this weekend's Rocky Mountain News. Here are the tawdry details: Chief federal Judge Edward W. Nottingham, who admitted to indiscretions at a downtown topless club, also may have been a...
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you should be getting a mileage comp. I own my own company and I pay my employee...
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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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