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Can, should and will district judges start giving effect to proposed amended guidelines ASAP?

By Douglas A. Berman

This article from the Wall Street Journal, which is headlined "New Factors to Help Judges Determine Leniency," effectively the proposed new federal guideline amendments released on Friday by the US Sentencing Commission (basics here): New rules will make it easier for federal judges to consider criminal defendants' military service, age, and mental and emotional conditions in determining more lenient prison sentences, a federal agency announced on Friday. Defense lawyers and some judges cheered the move by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which develops advisory guidelines that most federal judges use to calculate sentences. The commission had been considering updating the rules. As a result of the changes, which takes effect on Nov. 1, some defendants could receive a reduction of several months or several years, said Mauro Wolfe, a former federal prosecutor who is now a defense attorney in New York...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 03, 2010 (boomark / email).