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What will USSC do given that DOJ and the Judicial Conference oppose retroactivity for new criminal history rules

By Douglas A. Berman

As detailed here, the US Sentencing Commission has a public meeting scheduled today at which it will possibly vote whether to give retroactive effect to its new amendment to reduce the impact of "recency" as a factor in the calculation of the criminal history score.  This recent analysis from the USSC shows that over 7,500 federal inmates might get, on average, more than a year off their prison sentence if this amendment is made retroactive. Yesterday, the Sentencing Commission posted here the materials it received in response to its request for public comment on this issue.  Intriguingly, as detailed in letters available here and here, the Justice Department "strongly opposes retroactive application of the amendment" and the Criminal Law Committee of the Judicial Conference has unanimously recommended against retroactivity...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 16, 2010 (boomark / email).