Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Sentencing Law and Policy

Criminal Law

: Sentencing Law and Policy

Wisconsin state appellate court urges guideline repeal

By Douglas A. Berman

This Chicago Tribune article provides this report on an interesting ruling from a Wisconsin state appellate court today:Wisconsin lawmakers should scrap a law requiring judges to consider sentencing guidelines when punishing people who commit certain felonies, an appeals court said Wednesday. The state commission that kept the guidelines current no longer exists and that makes considering them a pointless exercise, the District 2 Court of Appeals said. Lawmakers eliminated the Wisconsin Sentencing Commission in a cost-saving measure in last year's state budget. The commission was created in 2001 to study sentencing patterns in Wisconsin, with a goal of making them more uniform from county to county.... But lawmakers failed to repeal a law that requires judges to consider the guidelines when they eliminated the commission...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on October 22, 2008 (boomark / email).