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Sentencing Law and Policy 
News, issues, commentary and provides resources related to sentencing law and policy.
Post Frequency: 77.7/day Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 10:54:24 Recent Entries: 4815
By Douglas A. Berman
Go to Sentencing Law and Policy, find other Criminal Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
"Who should control California's prison budget? U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in"
Posted on June 13, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this new article in the Los Angeles Times. It gets started this way: A legal battle over who gets to control California's massive spending on prisons ? judges or corrections officials...
New release of Kagan papers includes a crack/powder memo
Posted on June 12, 2010This new AP article discussing the "roughly 40,000-page trove of documents released by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library on Friday" includes this sentencing-related tid-bit: In a July 1997 memo to Clinton on drug sentencing guidelines, Kagan and [her boss...
Scheduled firing squad execution renewing Utah's death penalty debate
Posted on June 12, 2010Barring some unexpected development, Ronnie Lee Gardner will be executed in Utah this coming Friday in the same manner in which the first modern US execution took place 33 years ago. This new Salt Lake Tribune article discusses this symetry...
"Clarence Thomas in 2012!"
Posted on June 12, 2010The title of this post is the last line of this amusing Washington Post op-ed by Kashmir Hill and David Lat of Above the Law, which makes a lovely case for Justice Clarence Thomas running for President in 2012. The...
Special JRP issue on "Sentencing and Corrections in the States"
Posted on June 12, 2010I am pleased to be able to report on and promote a the Special Issue on Sentencing and Corrections in the States that was just published by the Justice Research and Policy and it available via this link. Here is...
"Sentencing and Comparative Theory"
Posted on June 11, 2010The title of this post is the title of this notable new piece of scholarship from Professor Richard Frase available via SSRN. Here is the abstract: Mirjan Damaska and other comparative criminal justice theorists have given very little attention to...
How can and should we assess the "success" of medical marijuana and pot prohibition reform efforts?
Posted on June 11, 2010Frequent blog commentor Bill Otis has a notable and curious post here at Crime & Consequences that references this new AP article in which "Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer says legalization of medical marijuana has not worked out as voters planned,...
Split Sixth Circuit ruling spotlights split over who can get resentenced under new crack guidelines
Posted on June 11, 2010Within the next few weeks, the Supreme Court will hand down a ruling in the Dillon case dealing with the extent of a district court's authority to reduce sentences when a defendant is eligible for a reduction under the Sentencing...
Worth reading around the blogosphere
Posted on June 11, 2010There are lots of great new posts at two of my new favorite criminal law blogs, Prison Law Blog and SentencingSpeak. I especially liked these two recent posts from these sites: "Is Meg Whitman?s Criminal Justice Platform a Joke?" "Preventing...
New CEPR report on "The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration"
Posted on June 10, 2010I am intrigued and pleased to learn that the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has released here a new report titled "The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration." The full report is available at this link, and here is...
Disgraced Detroit mayor apparently boot camp eligible despite getting significant state prison sentence
Posted on June 10, 2010This new Detroit Free Press article, which is headlined "State: Ex-mayor Kilpatrick qualifies for boot camp," provides an interesting update on a high-profile state sentencing case out of Michigan. Here is how the piece starts: Two weeks after he was...
Notable Canadian ruling on extreme prison confinement
Posted on June 10, 2010A helpful reader from north of the border sent me this note about a notable and high-profile (and very lengthy) ruling about prisoners' constitutional rights in Canada: I thought you may wish to write about this significant decision from a...
An (amusing and telling) attack on Elena Kagan's potential to be "activist judge" who "will undermine Americans' gun rights"
Posted on June 10, 2010One reason I have been a fan of the Supreme Court's Second Amendment work in Heller is because the ruling should help bring an end to simplistic (and, in my view, misguided) attacks on "activist judges" from the right. Because...
Indiana Supreme Court addresses use of risk assessment tools in state sentencing
Posted on June 10, 2010The Indiana Supreme Court yesterday handed down an interesting and important decision concerning the use at sentencing of the kind of risk-assessment tools that are become increasingly more popular in those states adopting evidence-based sentencing practices...
California regulators reject state's revised lethal injection plan
Posted on June 10, 2010As detailed in this new AP piece, which is headlined "Regulators reject new death penalty procedures," California's long-stalled efforts to get back in the business of executions has hit another snag. Here are the basics: California regulators have rejected proposed...
Lindsay Lohan doing her best to become technocorrections poster child
Posted on June 09, 2010Sentencing fans now have yet another reason to enjoy the guilty pleasures of the movie Mean Girls: it seems that its star, Lindsay Lohan, may next appear on either a wanted poster or on a poster advertising SCRAM, the alcohol-monitoring...
Lawyer turned Ponzi schemer turned cooperator Rothstein gets federal prison term of 50 years
Posted on June 09, 2010As detailed in this Reuters report, "South Florida Ponzi scheme mastermind Scott Rothstein was sentenced to 50 years in prison on Wednesday for an investment fraud that bilked clients out of more than $1 billion." Here's more: The sentence was...
Notable new testimony from DPIC on the economic costs of the death penalty
Posted on June 09, 2010A helpful reader pointed me to this new written testimony from the Death Penalty Information Center's executive director, Richard Dieter, concerning the death penalty's economic costs. Here is how DPIC's website explains the background and basics of this document: On...
US Sentencing Commission publishes fascinating new survey of district judges' views on sentencing
Posted on June 09, 2010Just posted on the website of the US Sentencing Commission is this new document titled "Results of Survey of United States District Judges: January 2010 through March 2010." As the website explains, the "Sentencing Commission undertook to survey all United...
Will three strikes or other California sentencing issues become a hot political topic?
Posted on June 09, 2010I do not see too many huge sentencing stories emerging from yesterday's primary elections in a bunch of states. But this report from the Los Angeles Times on California's Attorney General race notes the place that the state's three-strikes law...
A notable district court opinion on the post-Booker ex post facto issue
Posted on June 09, 2010Thanks to this piece in the New York Law Journal, which is headlined "Use of Current Sentencing Rules Barred for 2003 Confession," I see that a New York district court has issued a notable and quite thoughtful ruling addressing post-Booker...
Utah getting ready for an "old school" execution
Posted on June 09, 2010The AP has this lengthy new piece about a high-profile upcoming execution in Utah. The piece is headlined "At inmate's request, Utah prepares firing squad," and here is how it begins: Barring a last-minute reprieve, Ronnie Lee Gardner will be...
"Executioner: Death by firing squad is '100 percent justice'"
Posted on June 09, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this interesting new piece at CNN based on an interview with a member of the last firing squad used in Utah in 1996 to execute a convicted murderer. Here is a...
Do "mama grizzlies" have a particular approach to crime and punishment issues?
Posted on June 09, 2010As detailed in this NPR piece and this Politico piece, one theme emerging from yesterday's election results is the success of female Republican candidates that had Sarah Palin's backing ? or, as Sarah Palin call them, "Mama Grizzlies." Though it...
In Missouri, it is the prosecutors complaining about sentencing guidelines
Posted on June 08, 2010This local story from Missouri, which is headlined "Prosecutors seek changes to sentencing guidelines," reports on complaints about the state sentencing guidelines that are tellingly similar to complaints we hear about federal sentencing guidelines. But, as highlighted in this excerpt,...
"Protecting Crime Victims in Federal Appellate Courts"
Posted on June 08, 2010The title of this post is the first part of the title of former-judge and now Professor Paul Cassell's latest article advocating for the federal Crime Victims' Rights Act to be given a broad reading. This article is available here...
Federal prosecutors asking "only" for 40 years for now-cooperating lawyer Ponzi schemer
Posted on June 08, 2010As detailed in this prior post, this week's scheduled federal sentencing of Scott Rothstein, Florida's answer to Bernie Madoff, is bringing up a host of interesting legal issues and sentencing recommendations. This new piece available at law.com, which is headlined...
Might Elena Kagan be a fan of shaming sanctions?
Posted on June 08, 2010A helpful reader alerted me to this report on an interesting little sentencing tidbit to be found in the recently released papers from Elena Kagan time in the Clinton Administration: The William J. Clinton Presidential Library provided 46,500 pages of...
"[M]ost law reviews are simply a waste of trees"
Posted on June 07, 2010The title of this post (which is cross-posted at LSI) comes from the last phrase of this amusing and effective commentary by Professor Gerald Uelmen in the June 2010 issue of the California Lawyer. (Hat tip: C&C.) The piece is...
Will sixth time be the charm in capital trial(s) of Curtis Flowers?
Posted on June 07, 2010CNN has this interesting report on what appears to be a record-setting capital trial scheduled to start this week in Mississippi. Here is how the piece gets started: Curtis Flowers has stood before five juries in the past 13 years...
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you should be getting a mileage comp. I own my own company and I pay my employee...
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I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
Does failure to provide health insurance benefits at the time promised constitute harm to the employee?
Yes. Failure to provide health insurance benefits is a violation of Labor Law ob...
My job requires me to drive bank deposits up to two times a day using my own vehicle and gas. Although not too far, can should I be receiving compensation? One deposit run is required daily by company policy, but the man
you should be getting a mileage comp. I own my own company and I pay my employee...
Can i sue my employer for breach of Contract?
i would suggest you get professional advice
from what you have put here yo...
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