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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.
Editorial on presidential pardon practices
Posted on February 11, 2008This editorial in today's San Francisco Chronicle, titled "Bush fumbles on pardons," keeps the spotlight on the recent ugly news from the US Pardon Attorney's Office. Here are snippets: President Bush always has had a reputation for being tight in...
More details on DOD seeking the death penalty in GITMO cases
Posted on February 11, 2008As if there wasn't enough to talk about concerning the death penalty, here is an official press release titled "Defense Department Seeks Death Penalty for Six Guantanamo Bay Detainees." Here are a few excerpts: The Defense Department announced today it...
Bill Lerach gets (plea bargained max of) two years in prison
Posted on February 11, 2008As detailed in this early AP report, "a former partner at a prestigious New York law firm has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for his role in a lucrative kickback scheme involving class-action lawsuits. William Lerach was...
Beating the odds?
Posted on February 10, 2008Though genuinely a serious issue, I have a hard time resisting a few chuckles upon seeing this news item from Boston: A convicted Level 3 sex offender has won $10 million in the Massachusetts State Lottery. The Worcester Gazette &...
An intriguing project for criminal conversations
Posted on February 10, 2008Professors Paul Robinson and Kimberly Ferzan have created an intriguing new project entitled Criminal Law Conversations, which is explained at this slick website. Here is part of the pitch on the website: We invite criminal law scholars around the world...
The personal realities and opportunity costs of capital cases
Posted on February 10, 2008Thanks to How Appealing, I saw this interesting piece in the Casper Star-Tribune about some personal realities that come from working on a capital case. Here are excerpts: Intensely stressful. Overwhelming. Simply miserable. The attorneys who've litigated death penalty cases...
"Where candidates stand on crime, death penalty"
Posted on February 10, 2008The title of this post is the title of this new article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Before even reading the article, I already knew that all the 2008 presidential candidates are generally against crime and generally for the death...
Is there no pressing non-sentencing business in South Dakota?
Posted on February 10, 2008This local AP story has me wondering if the South Dakota legislature has solved all of the state's other pressing problems: South Dakota House is scheduled to consider a measure Monday to eliminate an archaic judicial doctrine that wipes away...
NY Times and NAACP speak out against the AG on crack retroactivity
Posted on February 09, 2008AG Michael Mukasey's recent congressional testimony urging Congress to block retroactivity for the new crack guidelines (basics here and here) has now brought this new editorial from the New York Times and this new press release from the NAACP. Here....
My bloggy interview at LexBlog discussing start of OSJCL Amici
Posted on February 09, 2008In this post at LexBlog, Rob La Gatta has put up an interview we did last week discussing, inter alia, how my blogging here (and the thoughtful comments of so many readers) inspired me to help create OSJCL Amici: Views...
Latest issue of Corrections Today about "Evidence-Based" research and reforms
Posted on February 09, 2008The latest issue of Corrections Today, which is the professional membership publication of the American Correctional Association, is devoted to "Correctional Research & Evidence-Based Practices." In this opening commentary, National Institute of Corrections' Chief of Research and Evaluation sets the...
Federal Defenders memo about DOJ position on crack retroactivity
Posted on February 08, 2008I just got a copy of an interesting little memo from the Sentencing Resource Counsel of the Federal Public and Community Defenders, which clearly was written to respond to concerns within the defense bar as a result of the recent...
The Nebraska Supreme Court finds electrocution unconstitutional
Posted on February 08, 2008As detailed in this SCOTUSblog post, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled today that electrocution is cruel and unusual punishment. Here are the basics from SCOTUSblog: The Supreme Court of Nebraska ? the last state to allow the death penalty to...
Division in the Justice Department over crack retroactivity
Posted on February 08, 2008Writing this strong piece in the Los Angeles Times, Richard Schmitt is focused on the really interesting set of issues in the wake of AG Michael Mukasey's recent crack advocacy. Here are extended excerpts: In recent days, Atty. Gen. Michael...
Welsey Snipes to be sentenced two weeks too late
Posted on February 08, 2008As detailed in this local story, a "federal judge has set a sentencing date for actor Wesley Snipes, who was convicted Feb. 1 on three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file tax returns" for late April 2008. Here are...
Even the NRA, while urging Second Amendment strict scrutiny, thinks Martha Stewart and Lewis Libby have no gun rights
Posted on February 08, 2008SCOTUSblog here has links to a large bunch of amicus briefs filed in the Supreme Court's Heller Second Amendment case. Though perhaps other supporters of gun rights do not sell out felons, I was especially interested to see that the...
Today's Sixth Circuit must-read on reasonableness
Posted on February 07, 2008I'll have to read all the analysis before commenting, but How Appealing provides the basics on the latest Sixth Circuit reasoned discussion of reasonableness: En banc Sixth Circuit issues decision addressing "reasonableness" review of criminal sentence imposed under federal Sentencing...
More on Mukasey on crack: is the best defense is a good offense?
Posted on February 07, 2008This Washington Post article has a bit more information about AG Mukasey's latest statements about implementation of the US Sentencing Commission's crack retroactivity decision. Here are excerpts: In a statement prepared for his scheduled appearance before the House Judiciary Committee...
Providing a positive spin on the pardon attorney scandal
Posted on February 07, 2008Former US Pardon Attorney Margaret Colgate Love sent me this e-mail which suggests good might come from the latest disturbing news from the US Pardon Attorney's Office: It occurred to me that the ugly situation in the Pardon Attorney's Office,...
Violent crime and crazy talk
Posted on February 07, 2008Over at Crime & Consequences, Steve Erickson has this interesting post titled, "The Ubiquity of Substance Abuse in the Calculus of Crime and Mental Illness." Here are snippets: As mentioned previously, the recent National Institute of Mental Health's CATIE study...
Economic woes in Michigan impacting corrections and sentencing
Posted on February 07, 2008News from Michigan provides the latest setting for trotting out my new mantra, "It's the prison economy, stupid." Here are specifics from this new AP article: The budget proposal that state budget director Robert Emerson delivers Thursday is expected to...
Hawaii still dealing with Apprendi fix and fall-out
Posted on February 07, 2008This local article reveals how long it can take for certain matters to make their way from the Supreme Court in DC all the way out to Hawaii: State courts can resentence convicted felons to extended prison terms under a...
Mukasey's crack testimony and reactions from public policy groups
Posted on February 07, 2008AG Mukasey's take on crack retroactivity appears in the last few pages of this written testimony submitted today to the House Judiciary Committee, which this morning held an "Oversight Hearing of the Department of Justice." Here is the key concluding...
Eighth Circuit provides post-Kimbrough spin on crack sentences
Posted on February 07, 2008The Eighth Circuit today in US v. Roberson, No. 06-3458 (8th Cir. Feb. 7, 2008) (available here) provides its spin on crack sentencing after Kimbrough. Here are some key excerpts (with cited omitted): The district court ignored Roberson?s and Sturgis?s...
Interesting appellate reading from How Appealing
Posted on February 06, 2008Though not focused purely on sentencing issues, these two items today on How Appealing caught my eye: In federal death penalty trial of defendant charged with two counts of murder committed while engaged in drug trafficking, the federal district court...
More detail on the US Pardon Attorney scandal
Posted on February 06, 2008This new AP story, headlined "Pardon Attorney Moved After Racism Claim," provides more details on the ugliness in the Office of the US Pardon Attorney. Here are excerpts: The Justice Department attorney responsible for recommending presidential pardons has been transferred...
New York Times editorial assails juvenile LWOP
Posted on February 06, 2008Highlighting one of many sentencing issues I wish would get more attention in this election season, the New York Times today has this new editorial headlined, "A Shameful Record." Here are excerpts: The United States leads the world in a...
AG Mukasey comes out swinging on crack retroactivity
Posted on February 06, 2008This ABCNews story and this AP piece both report that Attorney General Michael Mukasey is going to ask Congress to intervene with the retroactive implementation of the new crack guidelines. Here are a few particulars from a big new story...
Federal district judges say the darndest things
Posted on February 05, 2008For proof that federal district judges cannot do just anything they want at sentencing after Booker, check out the opinion of the Eighth Circuit today in US v. Wysong, No. 07-1025 (8th Cir. Feb. 5, 2008) (available here). Here is...
What's just right in Kansas...
Posted on February 05, 2008Proving yet again that the states are way ahead of the feds in figuring out how to do sentencing and corrections, this local article reports encouraging news from everyone's favorite bellwether state: The percentage of Kansas inmates who commit new...
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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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