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The latest briefing on fast-track disparity after Kimbrough

By Douglas A. Berman

One of the most interesting and dynamic post-Booker issues still percolating in the lower courts concerns whether defendants who are not within so-called "fast-track" districts should be eligible for comparable early plea sentence reductions when their cases are factually similar to those who get the benefit of such reductions in "fast-track" districts.  Before Kimbrough, the circuits had generally ruled that district courts lack discretion to provide such reductions without the blessing of the government.  After Kimbrough, this issue has divided the circuits.  A helpful reader sent me a copy of a thorough and thoughtful brief on this fast-track disparity issue that was filed in the Seventh Circuit earlier this week.  Here is how the appellate issue is presented in this brief (which can be downloaded below): Whether the district court committed reversible procedural error when it determined that Seventh Circuit precedent precluded it from considering the sentences given in fast-track districts as part of its 18 U...continue to full post

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