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Strong arguments for second-look sentencing reforms from SCOTUS concurrences

By Douglas A. Berman

My chief gripe with all LWOP sentences as a policy matter, especially now that modern presidents and governors have largely refused to give serious consideration to nearly all prison commutation requests, is that these sentences essentially pronounce and encrust a final fate for a defendant at the time of initial sentencing.  Though good arguments can and have been made for "truth-in-sentencing" reforms that restrict the authority of a parole board or other institution to change significantly a sentence initially imposed by a judge, I think it folly to assume or even expect that "first-look" sentencing determinations (by prosecutors and/or judges and/or juries) will always be correct and thus should always be final. The opinion for the Court in Grahamspeaks to these concerns when it notes that an LWOP sentence is akin to a death sentence in that "the sentence alters the offender?s life by a forfeiture that is irrevocable...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on May 17, 2010 (boomark / email).