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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.
A must-read for all would-be sentencing reformers
Posted on February 19, 2008Though the paper does not mention sentencing once, this new work soon to be published in the Cornell Law Review is a must-read for any and all would-be sentencing reformers. The piece is titled, "Blinking on the Bench: How Judges...
Shouldn't we have tougher recidivism sentencing laws for DWI?
Posted on February 19, 2008This Ohio story about an upcoming DUI sentencing has my blood boiling again about the failure of states to adopt tough recidivism sentencing laws to respond to the very risky behavior of repeat drunk driving. Here are the basics: Three...
Questioning law school priorities in instruction and programming
Posted on February 19, 2008As Dan Filler notes in this post at The Faculty Lounge, at the terrific U Penn Eighth Amendment symposium last week I complained about the over-emphasis on capital punishment instruction and related programming in law schools. Here is how Dan...
Sixth Circuit back in action with three sentencing rulings
Posted on February 19, 2008Coming back strong after a long weekend, the Sixth Circuit today has handed down three opinions that all have significant sentencing discussions. A very quick read of these three opinions suggests that none breaks significant new ground, but all three...
One federal district trying a single judge approach to crack retroactivity
Posted on February 19, 2008This new article in the Kansas City Star, headlined "Sentence corrections possible in crack cocaine cases," reveals that one federal district has adopted an interesting (and legally questionable?) approach to crack retroactivity matters: Late last month, Chief U...
More on technocorrections for sex offenders
Posted on February 19, 2008This new article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, headlined "Technology keeps eye on sex offenders," provides a useful overview of various technocorrection issues surrounding sex offender tracking: Nobody wants them. But everyone wants to know where they are...
Add North Carolina to the list of states strugging with prison population problems
Posted on February 19, 2008This AP story highlights yet another state dealing with the economic and policy challenges of an ever-expanding prison population. Here are details: The rapid growth in North Carolina's prison population may force lawmakers to spend more tens of millions of...
Three brief queries about capital appellate briefing realities
Posted on February 18, 2008Prior posts about the Penry case and death penalty costs have me again interesting in doing some arm-chair empiricism about the time, money and energy that gets devoted to litigating capital cases. To begin, I'd like to focus on guestimating...
Examining realities of crack sentencing reform
Posted on February 18, 2008USSC Commissioner John Steer and attorney Mark Allenbaugh have this new Findlaw piece, titled "The State of Federal Cocaine Sentencing Policy: Will Congress Soon Finish What the U.S. Sentencing Commission Started?". Here is how it ends: [T]he Justice Department is...
Wondering about death and dollars in Ohio and Texas
Posted on February 18, 2008Some commentators are questioning my (inflated?) guess that Texas may have spent a billion dollars seeking the death penalty for Johnny Paul Penry over the past three decades. Though I am not sure my economic guess is reasonable, I am...
More remembering of the Clinton pardon ugliness
Posted on February 17, 2008Thanks to this post at Pardon Power, I see another commentary today recalling the pardon scandal that Bill Clinton created his last day as president. Though this op-ed, titled "Remembering and then forgetting the Clintons," covers a range of issues,....
After three decades (and a billion dollars wasted), Penry gets a life sentence
Posted on February 17, 2008The AP here details remarkable final chapter to an infamous and telling Texas capital punishment story: The state will not seek the death penalty against convicted killer Johnny Paul Penry in an agreement that will require Penry to serve three...
Still more on lying, Clemens, Bonds and equal justice
Posted on February 16, 2008This New York Times commentary, headlined "Justice Will Be Served Only if Clemens Isn?t Given a Pass," echoes points I have been making about the need for equal steroid justice. Here are excerpts: What we all know now is that...
Different rhetoric about individual gun rights
Posted on February 15, 2008This AP reports that "Barack Obama said Friday that the country must do 'whatever it takes' to eradicate gun violence following a campus shooting in his home state, but he believes in an individual's right to bear arms": "I think...
Notable new resource for those working on crack resentencing
Posted on February 15, 2008The Center for Community Alternatives (CCA), which seeks to "promote reintegrative justice and a reduced reliance on incarceration through advocacy, services and public policy development," now has on its website an interesting new resource for federal defense attorneys...
Weekend reading from SSRN
Posted on February 15, 2008A bunch of new pieces on SSRN seem worthy of a weekend look. Here are the titles and links: Lady Madonna, Children at Your Feet: The Criminal Justice System's Romanticization of the Parent-Child Relationship by Jennifer M. Collins Experience and...
Off to Penn to talk about the Eighth Amendment
Posted on February 15, 2008As highlighed in this official annoucnement, I am scheduled to speak this afternoon at the start of a very interesting symposium at University of Pennsylvania Law School. The symposium is titled "Cruel and Unusual Punishment: Litigating Under the Eighth Amendment,"...
Arizona Supeme Court extends jury trial rights to misdemeanors leading to sex offender registration
Posted on February 15, 2008In a very interesting opinion that covers a lot of very interesting modern criminal justice issues, the Arizona Supreme Court yesterday in Fushek v. State, No. CV-07-0251-PR (Ariz. Feb. 15, 2008), unanimously held that the Arizona state constitution requires a...
When will the various Clinton clemency scandals become a campaign issue?
Posted on February 15, 2008The suggestion of a posible presidential pardon for Roger Clemens (basics here) has yet again caused justice, politics and clemency power to come into focus in a high-profile setting. However, this long opinion piece from yesterday's Wall Street Journal, titled...
Sentencing, a love story
Posted on February 15, 2008Who says sentencings cannot be romantic? As highlighted by this local story, headlined "First the Wedding, Then Years in Prison," at least one lucky couple was able to arrange for both a sentencing and a wedding to fall on Valentine's...
Merits brief of defendant in Kennedy, the SCOTUS capital child rape case
Posted on February 14, 2008As noted in posts in this Kennedy case archive, the Supreme Court later this term will hear Kennedy v. Louisiana, a case allowing it to review the constitutionality of state laws that make the death penalty a punishment for the...
More on Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, perjury prosecutions and race concerns
Posted on February 14, 2008This new Bloomberg news piece, which quotes many former federal prosecutors, has me thinking again about racial disparities if Roger Clemens is not very soon subject to the same kind of criminal charges that are now facing Barry Bonds. Here...
Gearing up for today's Senate crack hearing
Posted on February 12, 2008All the usual suspects have useful information on their website in anticipation of today's afternoon Senate hearing on "Federal Cocaine Sentencing Laws: Reforming the 100-to-1 Crack/Powder Disparity." The Sentencing Project has this new webpage with links, and FAMM has this...
Idaho joins states struggling with prison overcrowding
Posted on February 12, 2008As TalkLeft spotlights here, the Idaho legislature is looking to ease the application of its mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws. Here are excerpts from this AP report: A bill that would give Idaho judges greater discretion to keep drug addicts...
No rest for the sentencing weary in the Sixth Circuit
Posted on February 11, 2008Though I just finished consuming the amazing Sixth Circuit opinions in the Vonner en banc ruling late last week, this morning brings another must-read for the Sixth Circuit sentencing aficionado. The ruling comes in US v. Thompson, No. 06-6233 (6th...
Crack debate becoming really whack really quickly
Posted on February 11, 2008When the US Sentencing Commission decided in December to make its new crack guidelines retroactive effective March 3, 2008, I knew that the script was already in place for sentencing March Madness. But with AG Michael Mukasey's recent congressional testimony...
What sentence will (and should) Bill Lerach get?
Posted on February 11, 2008As detailed in this Reuters story, class-action attorney Bill Lerach has lots of notable supporters as he faces sentencing on Monday: Famed San Diego class-action attorney William Lerach has asked a federal judge to sentence him to a year in...
Guantánamo detainee cases now about sentencing issues
Posted on February 11, 2008As I have often said on this blog, all big public policy matters eventually become sentencing issues in some way. This New York Times article, headlined "U.S. Said to Seek Execution for 6 in Sept. 11 Case," highlights why GITMO...
Where the bugged water cooler must reside
Posted on February 11, 2008A couple of years ago, at a law blogger conference at Harvard Law School where folks debated the scholarly potential of blogs, Kate Litvak derisively described law professors blogs as a "bugged water cooler." As suggested by my paper for...
The amazing federal sentencing story of Sergeant Lett
Posted on February 11, 2008Regular readers may recall some prior posts about the sentencing of Sergeant Patrick Lett (many of which are linked below). I am proud that Sergeant Lett is now my client and that, along with my colleague Douglas Cole of Jones...
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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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