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Should Bernie Madoff bother to appeal his sentence?

By Douglas A. Berman

The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new article in USA Today, which is headlined "Appeal of Madoff's 150-year sentence wouldn't matter." Here is a big part of an effective article: Bernard Madoff has potential legal grounds to appeal his 150-year prison sentence, but the chances are slim that he could avoid dying behind bars for bilking thousands of investors in a massive Ponzi scheme, sentencing experts said Tuesday. Federal guidelines state that criminal penalties should be "sufficient but not greater than necessary" to reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for the law, ensure just punishment and provide adequate deterrence of criminal conduct. In imposing the maximum allowed sentence Monday, U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 01, 2009 (boomark / email).