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Japanese working on IT approach to sentencing consistency

By Douglas A. Berman

This fascinating article from Japan indicates that the land that brought us the tech genius that is Super Mario Galaxy is trying a tech approach to sentencing consistency:Ahead of the introduction of the lay judge system, which will start in May 2009, the Supreme Court set up in April a database in which sentences handed down in past cases can be looked up using key words.  Under the lay judge system, the opinion of members of the public will be reflected not only on the question of guilt, but also on the severity of sentences. To avoid major sentencing discrepancies for similar cases, the Supreme Court has created a database of past criminal case rulings and developed a search system, providing lay judges with a means to refer to past cases...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 25, 2008 (boomark / email).