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Interesting SCOTUS discussion of plea agreement breaches in Puckett

By Douglas A. Berman

With so much else going on in the sentencing world these days, I have not given much attention to Puckett v. United States (07-9712), the case before the Supreme Court involving the government breach of a plea agreement regarding arguments to be made at sentencing.  I have not focused on Puckett much because the official question presented concerns appellate review standards: "Whether a forfeited claim that the government breached a plea agreement is subject to the plain-error standard of Rule 52(b) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure." But, upon reading the transcript of today's oral argument in Puckett, which is now available at this link, I was reminded of how rarely the Supreme Court has occasion to consider the many legal issues surrounding plea agreements...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).