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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.
USSC posts lots of interesting public comments on proposed guideline amendments
Posted on April 16, 2010I just noticed that the US Sentencing Commission has this new item on its webpage: Public Comment on Proposed Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines The Commission received comment from Congress, the judiciary, the executive branch, members of the defense bar,...
Is sexual orientation directly relevant to judicial philosophy and SCOTUS duties?
Posted on April 16, 2010The question in the title of this post is prompted by this (important?) new Washington Post article, which is headlined "White House complains about CBS News blog post saying that possible Supreme Court nominee is gay." Here is how the...
Did any Tea Party protests complain about wasteful criminal justice spending?
Posted on April 16, 2010The title of this post is prompted in part by this press release from Families Against Mandatory Minimums, which is headlined "On Tax Day, FAMM Tells Fiscal Watchdogs Not to Overlook Wasteful Prison Spending; Growing Population of Nonviolent Inmates Pushes...
Could we get the big juve LWOP Eighth Amendment rulings from SCOTUS next week?
Posted on April 16, 2010In this post back in October, I flagged what were then the 10 biggest cases to watch for sentencing fans in the new SCOTUS term. The only cases on this list that were argued back in 2009 and that are...
District Judge rejects defense request to keep private next week's sentencing of Cameron Douglas
Posted on April 16, 2010The New York Post has this new report headlined "Cameron Douglas getting public sentencing." Here are the details: Cameron Douglas should start getting ready for his close-up. A judge today ordered a public sentencing for the drug-dealing Hollywood heir, whose...
Do all felons even forfeit their property rights when guns are involved?
Posted on April 15, 2010Regular readers know that I am intrigued by the post-Heller jurisprudence which suggests that all felons (and even some misdemeanants) forfeit forever their Second Amendment right to armed self-defense in the home simply by virtue of a conviction. Now I...
NY Times editorial calls for sensible prisoner census counting
Posted on April 15, 2010This morning's New York Times has this editorial headlined "A Fairer Way to Count," which focuses on how prisoners get counted. Here are excerpts: Maryland struck a blow for electoral fairness this week with a new law requiring that prison...
A life sentence for a woman who forces a teenage boy to touch her breasts!?!?!
Posted on April 15, 2010The exclamation/question that titles this post is my initial response to this remarkable local press story that a helpful student sent my way. This press report discussed a remarkable local sentence handed down earlier this week in Nevada under the...
Way below-guideline sentence for "drug dealer in a lab coat" prompts lots of questions
Posted on April 15, 2010This Los Angeles Times article reporting on a federal sentence handed down yesterday in California, which is headlined "4-year prison term ordered for 'drug-dealing doctor'," implicates nearly every challenging post-Booker federal sentencing issue that has been confounding federal judges and...
Judge orders Nacchio to appear in court to waive his right to appear in court
Posted on April 14, 2010Somewhere Franz Kafka is smiling (or crying). As detailed in this Denver Post article, a prominent white-collar defendant has been ordered to appear in federal court in order to be able to effectively waive his right to appear in federal...
Prosecutors defend who gets sent to Arizona's prisons
Posted on April 14, 2010This interesting local article, which is headlined "Most state inmates committed violent crimes: Officials say state gets money worth for $1B corrections budget," reports on an notable effort by Arizona state prosecutors to defend their state's high prison population...
Intriguing Ninth Circuit ruling on RDAP eligibility claim
Posted on April 14, 2010The federal residential drug abuse program (RDAP) is rarely discussed and, I believe, even more rarely the subject of litigation. For this reason (and others), I found intriguing today's Ninth Circuit paenl ruling in Mora-Meraz v. Thomas, No. 09-35413 (9th...
Seventh Circuit reverses above-guideline sentence for female sex offender as unreasonable
Posted on April 13, 2010The Seventh Circuit has a fasciating little reasonableness ruling today in US v. Miller, No. 09-2791 (7th Cir. Apr. 13, 2010) (available here). Here is how the opinion starts: Catharine Miller pled guilty to one count of traveling in interstate...
Who might sentencing fans want added to the latest SCOTUS short list?
Posted on April 13, 2010The question in the title of this post is prompted by this new National Law Journal article headlined "White House Said to Be Widening Search for High Court Nominee." Here is how the piece starts: Washington's spin machine cycled into...
"Bentham on Stilts: The Bare Relevance of Subjectivity to Retributive Justice"
Posted on April 13, 2010The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper from Professors Dan Markel and Chad Flanders now appearing on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In recent work, various scholars have challenged retributive justice theorists to pay...
Maine Supreme Judicial Court upholds application of mandatory minimum sentencing term for repeat drunk driver
Posted on April 13, 2010As detailed in this AP story, which is headlined "Maine Court Upholds Minimum Sentence Of Tina's Law," the Maine Supreme Judicial Court unanimously ruled today that the "minimum sentences mandated under Tina's Law, which aims to crack down on dangerous...
"Non-violent offenders clogging state prisons"
Posted on April 12, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this commentary in a local Pennsylvania newspaper. Here is how it starts: Pennsylvania's prison system continues to be impacted by costly overcrowding, while 20 other states are reducing their inmate populations...
"Public Safety, Individual Liberty, and Suspect Science: Future Dangerousness Assessments and Sex Offender Laws"
Posted on April 12, 2010The title of this post is the title of this notable new paper from Melissa Hamilton now appearing on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article argues that the new preventive law focus in sex offender laws is largely ineffective...
Are federal sentences in many high-profile white-collar cases now much too harsh?
Posted on April 12, 2010The question in the title of this post is prompted by this notable new post by Professor Peter Henning over at the New York Times DealBook under the headline "Sentences Get Harsher in White-Collar Cases." Here is part of Peter's...
Is Justice Stevens the greatest (or most significant or ___) sentencing Justice of all time?
Posted on April 11, 2010Especially given that Justice Stevens has three more months of important work left in his Supreme Court tenure, I am disinclined to spend too much time right now reviewing his extraordinary record and legacy as a Justice. Nevertheless, I think...
"Class Matters" gives needed attention to socioeconomic criminal justice questions
Posted on April 11, 2010Now available via SSRN is this important new piece by Professor Erica J. Hashimoto titled "Class Matters." As its abstract highlights, this piece gives overdue attention to a very important aspect of modern criminal justice realities: Poor people constitute one...
A (record?) 30-years on death row for Nevada killer
Posted on April 11, 2010Though I am not sure if this marks a record, but this local article notes that a death row defendant in Nevada is marking a notable milestone. The piece is headlined "Inmate on death row for nearly 30 years," and...
"The State (Never) Rests: How Excessive Prosecutor Caseloads Harm Criminal Defendants"
Posted on April 10, 2010The title of this post is the title of this interesting-looking new piece on SSRN from Adam Gershowitz and Laura Killinger. Here is the abstract: Although dozens of scholars have documented the appalling underfunding of indigent defense in the United...
Maryland legislature moving forward on branding sex offender drivers' licenses
Posted on April 10, 2010As this AP article details, "Maryland senators have passed legislation that would add special coding to sex offenders' driver's licenses." Here are the basic details: Senators passed legislation with the provision on Saturday. Sen. Richard Colburn, R-Dorchester, sponsored the amendment,...
It's official: Justice John Paul Stevens is calling it quits this summer
Posted on April 09, 2010This AP report provides the text of Justice John Paul Stevens' retirement letter to President Barack Obama, which reads as follows: Having concluded that it would be in the best interests of the Court to have my successor appointed and...
How should we deal with (mature?) teenagers who knowingly download the worst kiddie porn?
Posted on April 09, 2010The question in the title of this post is prompted by this intriguing local story from Florida, which is headlined "Teenager pleads guilty to possession of child porn, becomes sex offender." Here is how the piece starts: Patrick Melton, 17,...
"Obama should exercise the pardon power"
Posted on April 09, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this new commentary in the National Law Journal from Kenneth Lee, who served as an associate counsel to President George W. Bush and assisted with presidential pardons. Here are some excerpts:...
Post number 10,001 of this blog...
Posted on April 09, 2010will apparently be this post noting this this is my 10,001 post since starting this blog just under six years ago with this first post on May 14, 2004. That first post concerned the then-new report issued by the commission...
Ponzi schemer Petters gets "only" 50 years for $3.5 billion fraud
Posted on April 08, 2010As detailed in this Bloomberg report, another notable Ponzi schemer got another notable federal sentence this afternoon: Petters Group Worldwide LLC founder Thomas Petters, convicted of orchestrating a $3.5 billion fraud scheme, was sentenced to 50 years in prison...
Ohio inmate claiming execution protocol violates federal drug law
Posted on April 08, 2010Providing more proof that no good capital punishment deed goes unpunished, this local article reports on how the next person due to be executed in Ohio is responding to the state's decision to adopt a (more humane?) one-drug execution protocol....
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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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