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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.
"California Inmate Plan Draws Ire"
Posted on June 13, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this article in today's Wall Street Journal. Here are excerpts from the start of the article: California spent the past two decades making criminals pay ever-higher prices for their misdeeds, with...
Around the blogosphere
Posted on June 12, 2009Returning from the USSC conference in New Orleans to discover lots of posts of note around the criminal law blogosphere: From Capital Defense Weekly, "Alabama kills" From Grits for Breakfast, "Early education and crime" From StandDownTexas, "District Attorneys Disagree on...
Justice Stevens refuses to grant bail for Conrad Black
Posted on June 12, 2009In this post at SCOTUSblog, titled "Black loses bail plea ? for now," Lyle Denniston reports that "Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens refused on Thursday to order the release on bail of Canadian media mogul Conrad M. Black, but...
ABA Journal covers the controversies over federal child porn sentences
Posted on June 12, 2009The June issue of the ABA Journal includes this long article on the debate over federal child porn sentencing. The article is titled, "A Reluctant Rebellion," and here are some excerpts: [Judge Lynn] Adelman?s criticism [of the child porn sentencing....
Ohio ? aka the Texas of the north ? setting busy execution schedule
Posted on June 12, 2009Though not historically a state with lots of executions, Ohio in recent years has been one of the most active death penalty states. And, as detailed in local articles here and here, the "pace of executions in Ohio has become...
Great new article on Apprendi and parole in Columbia Law Review
Posted on June 12, 2009I am pleased to be able to highlight the publication of this great new article by W. David Ball in the June 2009 issue of the Columbia Law Review, titled "Heinous, Atrocious, and Cruel: Apprendi, Indeterminate Sentencing, and the Meaning...
"Judge Orders Former Bristol-Myers Executive to Write Book"
Posted on June 12, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this New York Times article discussing a creative sentencing term imposed by a federal judge on a white-collar offender. Here are a few of the details: On Monday, Judge Ricardo M....
In the Big Easy to discuss not-so-easy sentencing topics
Posted on June 11, 2009I am in New Orleans today to talk about departures and variances at the US Sentencing Commission's National Annual Seminar. I expect blogging will be light the rest of today, but I am hoping events at this conference will inspire...
Pot doc scheduled to be finally sentenced
Posted on June 11, 2009As detailed in this AP piece, a high-profile case involving a dispenser of medical marijuana is suppose to finally get to sentencing today: A medical marijuana dispensary owner is scheduled for sentencing in one of the nation's first cases since...
"Teen with 47 IQ gets 100 years in sex abuse case"
Posted on June 11, 2009A helpful reader forwarded to me this article with the headline that appears in the title to this post. Here are the particulars: A teenager who has profound mental disabilities was sentenced to 100 years in prison after pleading guilty...
Another district judge adopts 1-to1 crack/powder sentencing plan
Posted on June 10, 2009In this post last month, I reported on the thoughtful opinion in US v. Gully, No. CR 08-3005-MWB (N.D. Iowa May 18, 2009), Judge Mark Bennett explaining why he adopted a 1:1 ratio for crack sentencing cases. Thanks to a...
Do female sex offenders present special issues and problems?
Posted on June 10, 2009This new piece at CorrectionsOne, titled "Female sex offenders: A new phenomena?," prompts the question in the title of this post. Here are snippets from the article: The majority of sex offender research pertains to male offenders. However, in recent...
"California can't afford the death penalty"
Posted on June 10, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this op-ed authored by a former California Attorney General and district attorney, John Van de Kamp. Here is how the opinon piece starts: There are many reasons why people object to...
Senate hearing to discuss Senator Webb's national crime commission bill
Posted on June 10, 2009As detailed at this official webpage and in this report from The Sentencing Project, on Thursday June 11, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs will host a hearing to discuss Senator Jim Webb's bill proposing the creation of...
"Tough sentencing harder on budgets than on crime"
Posted on June 10, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this recent op-ed by Marc Mauer of The Sentencing Project. Here are some excerpts: [G]overnors across the nation are finding that prison expansion in the midst of an economic crisis is...
Should and will Conrad Black get bail from the Supreme Court?
Posted on June 10, 2009As detailed in posts here and here at SCOTUSblog, all the briefs are now before the Supreme Court in Conrad Black's request for bail from the Supreme Court. Here are the basics from Lyle Denniston's most recent dispatch: Lawyers for...
Discussing prosecutorial power at Ohio events on Tuesday
Posted on June 09, 2009I have the honor and the pleasure of participating in two panel discussions on Tuesday sponsored by the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, which will be focused on lessons to draw from this great new book by Jon Entine...
An initial (deep?) thought about modern Eighth Amendment jurisprudence
Posted on June 09, 2009Ever since the Supreme Court's cert grant in the juve LWOP cases of Graham and Sullivan (basics here and here), I have been thinking about ways the Justices might breathe some new life into a troublesome modern Eighth Amendment jurisprudence....
Bill addressing capital racial injustice making progress in North Carolina
Posted on June 09, 2009More than two decades ago in the famous McClesky case, the Supreme Court suggested it was less able than legislatures to address systemic racism in the application of the death penalty. As detailed in this local article, headlined "Committee OKs...
Sixth Circuit ruling on sentencing discretion under Rule 35(b)
Posted on June 09, 2009The Sixth Circuit has a split panel ruling of note today in US v. Grant, No. 07-3831 (6th Cir. June 9, 2009) (available here), concerning the scope of sentencing discretion when prosecutors seek to credit a defendant's cooperation effort via...
"Drunk-Driving Foes Split on Severity of Penalties"
Posted on June 09, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this intriguing Wall Street Journal article on a sentencing topic that, as regular readers know, I find fascinating. Here are excerpts: Mothers Against Drunk Driving has severed ties with an ally...
Appreciating the real American challenge in balancing liberty and security
Posted on June 08, 2009A helpful reader flagged this new commentary from Dahlia Lithwick at Slate, titled "Cage Match: Guantanamo is the least of America's prison problems." Here are snippets from its start and end: The public-opinion two-step on the wisdom of closing the....
"Low-level felons add millions to spending"
Posted on June 08, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this article from North Carolina providing another local dispatch from the prison economy. Here is how the piece begins: North Carolina's habitual-felon law is powerful: A three-time criminal who breaks into....
House hearing on bill to eliminate juve LWOP sentences
Posted on June 08, 2009As detailed at this page from The Sentencing Project, on Tuesday afternoon the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security will hold an hearing on the "Juvenile Justice Accountability and Improvement Act of 2009," which includes provisions...
Judge Easterbrook on barbarity and the sunnum bonum of federal sentencing
Posted on June 08, 2009A Seventh Circuit panel opinion authored by Judge Easterbrook in US v. Bartlett, No. 08-1196 (7th Cir. June 8, 2009) (available here), is this week's first must-read for sentencing fans. The ruling, which covers lots of issues, gets off to...
More on Sotomayor as a young NY state prosecutor
Posted on June 08, 2009Today's New York Times includes this article, headlined "Sotomayor Is Recalled as a Driven Rookie Prosecutor," with more cover of the professional past of a likely future Justice. Here is a snippet: Ms. Sotomayor spent about five years as a...
Looking at a case in which SCOTUS will look at Alabama's death penalty
Posted on June 08, 2009This week's installment of Adam Liptak's Sidebar column in the New York Times is headlined "Death Penalty Case Reveals Failings," and it examines a capital case from Alabama now before the Supreme Court. Here are excerpts: Kenneth B. Trotter had...
"Some Coloradans drive until they kill"
Posted on June 07, 2009This title of this post is the headline of this long Denver Post article that spotlights some of the reasons why I am not confident that society's current sentencing and punishment schemes for drunk driving are sound. Here are excerpts...
Judge Kent's letter discussing judicial activism, isolation and substance abuse
Posted on June 07, 2009While others are very busy trying to figure out what the heck judicial activism means in light of Judge Sotomayor's record, I thought it remarkable what Judge Samuel Kent said on this topic and othersin this letter he sent last...
"Luck or Law? The Constitutional Case Against Indeterminate Sentencing"
Posted on June 06, 2009The title of this post is the title of this provocative new abstract by Professor Dan Markel now up at at SSRN. Here is the abstract: In the majority of states indeterminate sentencing schemes prevail ? under which the decision...
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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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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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