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Thoughtful thoughts on Judge Weinstein's work in Polizzi

By Douglas A. Berman

Over at Volokh, Orin Kerr has this extended discussion of Judge Weinstein's very extended Polizzi opinion (basics here and here), which reverses a conviction in a child porn case on debatable legal grounds.  Here is the start of Orin's analysis:Polizzi reads less like a judicial decision than a 266-page book of opinion essays. If I understand the reasoning of the opinion ? not a small challenge with an opinion written in such a complex way over hundreds of pages ? the basic argument is this: Recent Supreme Court decisions interpreting the Sixth Amendment like Blakely v. Washington suggest that the current Supreme Court greatly values the role of the jury, and as a result older precedents saying that the jury can't hear about sentences are inconsistent with the spirit of the Supreme Court's new cases and are no longer binding precedent...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 07, 2008 (boomark / email).