(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense
Find a Local Lawyer
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402
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.
SCOTUS completely its capital case error-correction in Bobby v. Bies
Posted on June 01, 2009As documented by the fact that not a single amicus brief was filed in the capital case Bobby v. Bies (08-598), it seemed that the Supreme Court took up the case merely to correct what it perceived to be an...
Latest news on impeachment process for former Judge Kent
Posted on June 01, 2009This new story from the Texas Lawyer, headlined "House Task Force to Hold Hearing on Impeachment of Federal Judge," provides the latest news on the status of former judge, and now felon, Samuel Kent. Here is how the story starts:...
Interesting local sentencing story implicating racial and free press issues
Posted on June 01, 2009I just came across this interesting local sentencing story that seems to involve a lot more than just sentencing law and policy. Here are the basics: Diane Bukowski, a reporter for the African-American owned Michigan Citizen newspaper, was given one....
Examining Judge Sotomayor's criminal justice record
Posted on May 31, 2009Among the extraordinary number of article about Judge Sotomayor linked at How Appealing, I just discovered this pieceby Michael Doyle of McClatchy Newspapers headlined "Sotomayor's record reveals she's far from soft on crime." Here are some notable excerpts: Before her...
Two stories on different types of sex offenders
Posted on May 31, 2009One of many reasons that sex offender law and policy is so messy and controversial is because the term sex offender can mean so many different things in some many different contexts. These two promientn MSM stories about different types...
"Madoff's $lick Try"
Posted on May 31, 2009The title of this post is the headlines of this New York Post report on Bernie Madoff's hiring of a well-known sentencing consultant. Here are the details: Mega-fraudster Bernard Madoff has hired a leading prison consultant to help him try...
Any predictions on how a Justice Sotomayor would approach capital cases?
Posted on May 30, 2009This new AP piece, headlind "Death cases among early issues for new justice," spotlights that SCOTUS nominee Judge Sotomayor, though lacking a judicial record with the death penalty, has encountered the issue in at least one other setting. Here is...
Examining the work of psychologists in correctional settings
Posted on May 30, 2009Now up on SSRN is this new article titled "'Where the Home in the Valley Meets the Damp Dirty Prison': A Human Rights Perspective on Therapeutic Jurisprudence and the Role of Forensic Psychologists in Correctional Settings." Here is the abstract:...
The prison economy and the war on terror meet in Montana
Posted on May 30, 2009The AP has this fascinating new piece, headlined "Montana town offers to take Guantanamo prisoners," which highlights how the prison economy can provide a different perspective on the war on terror. Here are excerpts: On Capitol Hill, politicians are dead-set...
Different perspectives on federal sentencing from different vantage points
Posted on May 30, 2009As noted in prior posts here and here, this past week the US Sentencing Commission held a public hearing at Stanford Law School. This USSC webpage showing the agenda and the list of impressive persons who testified now also has...
Notable criminal law perspectives on Justices old and new
Posted on May 29, 2009Around the blogosphere are some interesting new posts on some criminal law work by current and likely future Supreme Court Justices. First, David Oscar Markus explains in this interesting post why he views Justice Scalia as "by far the most...
"New Casey Anthony attorney is death-penalty expert"
Posted on May 29, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this local article providing some interesting sentencing-related news in a high-profile murder case. Here are the particulars: The newest attorney to join Casey Anthony's defense team is a death-penalty expert from...
Efforts in Connecticut to convince Governor Rell to sign death penalty repeal bill
Posted on May 29, 2009This local article from Connecticut, headlined "Groups try to persuade Rell to abolish death penalty," highlights some of on-going work by what might be called the abolitionist lobby: Opponents of the death penalty began a campaign Thursday to persuade Gov...
A few ruminations about judging without empathy (and sentencing by computers)
Posted on May 29, 2009While some SCOTUS nominee "empathy" discussion has been silly, the basic debate over the role of empathy in judging has a number of interesting facets. The folks at The Volokh Conspiracy, for example, have been talking through the issue in...
Conrad Black appeals to Justice Stevens for bail pending SCOTUS ruling
Posted on May 29, 2009In this post last week on right after the Supreme Court granted cert on Conrad Black's criminal appeal, I asked "Should Conrad Black (and Jeff Skilling and others) be set free pending SCOTUS action?". My query prompted a spirited debate...
"Cocaine Cases in Limbo as End Looms for Sentencing Disparity"
Posted on May 29, 2009The title of this post is the title of this interesting article in today's New Jersey Law Journal. Here are excerpts: The Obama administration's call for the elimination of mandatory jail terms for certain crack-cocaine offenders is beginning to filter...
What is working so well when it comes to crime and punishment in the Netherlands?
Posted on May 29, 2009If (when?) Senator Jim Webb is able to get a national crime and punishment commission created, I hope that figuring out what is working in the Netherlands becomes an immediate focus of of the commission's attention. That's because, as this...
Passing prisoners (and the health-care buck) to nursing homes in Ohio
Posted on May 28, 2009I recently posted here on efforts by state officials in California to divert state prisoners to county jails in order to impose the economic costs of prisoner confinement on to localities. This story from my local paper, headlined "Nursing homes...
"Nebraska lawmakers approve lethal injection bill"
Posted on May 28, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this local article sent my way by a helpful reader. Here are the specifics: Nebraska lawmakers approved a bill Thursday that?s designed to give the state the legal means to carry...
Judge Sotomayor on textualism and voting rights in Hayden v. Pataki
Posted on May 28, 2009Folks can find lots and lots of interesting SCOTUS nominee Sotomayor blogging on various topics at The Volokh Conspiracy and SCOTUSblog and elsewhere. Here I will continue to keep the focus on criminal justice issue, while also stressing that a...
All the news that's fit to link from How Appealing
Posted on May 28, 2009Thanks to the always terrific How Appealing, I can through links keep up with some interesting criminal justice developments: Just Looking: Should Internet Ignorance Be a Defense to Child Porn Charges? Posner & Easterbrook in Action During Oral Argument on...
Poll indicates Connecticut voters still strongly support death penalty
Posted on May 28, 2009This article from the Hartford Courant shows that the people of the Nutmeg State are bigger fans of the death penalty than are the state's legislators, who passed a bill last week to repeal capital punishment in Connecticut: By a...
Fourth Circuit rejects intriguing arguments against federal child porn conviction
Posted on May 28, 2009The Fourth Circuit today has an interesting discussion of a variety of issues in an appeal of a federal child porn conviction and sentence in US v. Malloy, No. 08-4136 (4th Cir. May 28, 2009) (available here). Here is the...
The latest sentencing news from MTV
Posted on May 27, 2009MTV has this new report on the start of rapper TI's federal prison sentence. Here are some particulars: T.I. turned himself in Tuesday (May 26) at an Arkansas federal prison, where the rapper will begin serving a 366-day sentence stemming...
Thoughtful discussion of crime, punishment and restorative justice
Posted on May 27, 2009A helpful reader altered me to this terrific new piece, titled "America's Prisons: Is There Hope?", appearing in the June 11, 2009 issue of The New York Review of Books. Though the piece in various ways keeps returning to restorative...
Notable Tenth Circuit ruling on restitution awards under the MVRA
Posted on May 27, 2009The Tenth Circuit has a significant ruling today concerning restitution awards in US v. Dolan, No. 08-2104 (10th Cir. May 27, 2009) (available here). Here is the start of the opinion: Brian Dolan viciously attacked a hitchhiker, leaving his victim...
Intriguing Third Circuit case on considering hearsay in supervised release revocation
Posted on May 27, 2009The Third Circuit has an intriguing little procedural ruling today in US v. Lloyd, No. 08-2513 (3d Cir. May 27, 2009) (available here). Here are the basics of the ruling and a few of the doctrinal highlights: At issue in...
A quick thought on Judge Sotomayor's sentencing work in Cavera
Posted on May 27, 2009As I noted in this prior post, Judge Sotomayor is a unique Supreme Court nominee because she personally sentenced federal defendants as a federal district court judge and has also has personally experienced the entire Apprendi-Blakely-Booker-Gall change in federal sentencing...
Exploring execution competency and capacity to assist counsel
Posted on May 27, 2009I just noticed this piece on SSRN titled "The Afterlife of Ford and Panetti: Execution Competence and the Capacity to Assist Counsel." Here is the abstract: The capacity to assist counsel and communicate a defense once held a central place...
Juve LWOP and animal porn get top billing as media discuss SCOTUS docket
Posted on May 27, 2009With the naming (finally!) of a new SCOTUS nominee, the press is now started to talk about the cases that Judge Sonia Sotomayor would be immediately facing if she soon becomes Justice Sotomayor. The first two cases noted in this...
Previous | Next
Japan's International Child Abduction Policy
By Kirsten Brown (AXcess News) Washington - Four fathers quietly f...
Eminent domain, demographics and immigration policy
On the face of it, you may be wondering what eminent domain,...
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...
#1 Online Legal Resource
On 08-25 at 15:46PM
Acute perpendicular parking #NYPD #NYFD
On 08-18 at 22:18PM
Parallel parking gone bad. Too much gas UES NYC
On 08-18 at 21:41PM
UES NYC
On 08-18 at 21:25PM
Twitter suspends journalist critical of broadcast partner's coverage on dubious grounds @guyadams #nbcfail #twitterfail
On 07-30 at 17:57PM
Model example of 1st Amendment suppression by the People of New York City's Michael Bloomberg #OWS #NYPD
On 07-12 at 21:07PM
AG Holder lackadaisical on Operation in our Sites domain name seizures & RIAA lobbied free speech suppression @dajaz1
On 06-08 at 22:44PM
Why is the Catholic Church going to court over Obama contraception policy? @NewYorker commentary
On 05-31 at 10:08AM
Monks sue Louisiana for right to sell caskets made from forrest destroyed by Katrina
On 05-31 at 07:47AM
Are the abortion ultrasound laws headed for the Supreme Court?
On 05-15 at 21:52PM
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...
 |
|
Contact Us | About Us | Celebrity Law Blog |
Our Partners | Disclaimer
| Law Blog Directory
| Law Jobs
| Law Tweets
| GoDaddy Hosting
All original material � 1999-2011 by USLaw.com. |