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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.
Executions go forward with apologies (and without a hitch?) in Missouri and Texas
Posted on May 20, 2009As detailed in this AP story, two murderers "spent some of their last moments apologizing for their crimes before they were put to death six hours apart in Texas and Missouri, which executed its first convict in four years." Here...
Will new US Attorneys have a big impact on federal sentencing law and policy?
Posted on May 20, 2009The new Administration's approach to crack sentencing shows how new personnel in Main Justice is already impact some parts of federal sentencing law and policy. But, on a case-by-case basis, who serves in local US Attorney offices may have an...
Upcoming House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on crack sentencing
Posted on May 20, 2009As detailed on this official hearing page, the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security of the House Judiciary Committee has a hearing on crack sentencing scheduled for the morning of Thursday, May 21. The title of the hearing is...
Michael Vick now a free man... sort of
Posted on May 20, 2009The latest news on the latest former federal prisoner can be found here at the top of the CNN's news feed: Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick left a federal prison in Leavenworth, Kansas, early Wednesday, according to his publicist...
"Longtime fugitive mom freed from prison"
Posted on May 20, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this article that provides an update on a high-profile case that prompted interesting sentencing debates when it first made news. Here are a few details: Susan LeFevre's first prison stretch 33...
"Sex Offenders Forced To Live Under Miami Bridge"
Posted on May 20, 2009The title of this post is the title of this segment from today's episode of All Things Considered on NPR. Here are excerpts: In Miami, a causeway in the middle of Biscayne Bay has become home to one of the...
Thoughtful new district court opinion adopting 1:1 crack/powder ratio
Posted on May 19, 2009I am pleased to be able to post a new opinion from a district court that provides a thorough and thoughtful account of why the court has adopted a 1:1 ratio for crack sentence cases. Here is the openning paragraph...
Yet another different SCOTUS short-list
Posted on May 19, 2009Marcia Coyle has this new piece in The National Law Journal headlined "An Alternative Short List for the High Court: Law professors say whom they would nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court. Are any on the president's radar?" Here is...
"Executions Debated as Missouri Plans One"
Posted on May 19, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this article from today's New York Times, which provides an effective primer on the state of death penalty debate in Missouri as the state gears up to execute convicted murderer Dennis...
Interesting deterrence study out of Italy (perhaps providing a basis for more clemencies)
Posted on May 19, 2009This new press release from Science Daily, titled "Potential Criminals Deterred By Longer Sentences," reports on an interesting new published study on deterrence coming from Italy. Here are excerpts from the press release: A new study published in the Journal...
Examining environmental sentences after Booker
Posted on May 19, 2009Professor Michael O'Hear has this new article on SSRN, titled ?Bark and Bite: The Environmental Sentencing Guidelines after Booker.? Here is the abstract: The federal sentencing guidelines for environmental crimes bark loudly, calling for sentences of imprisonment for all but...
"Former FAMU student gets 22-month prison sentence in grade-changing case"
Posted on May 19, 2009The title of this post is the headline of this notable federal sentencing story from Florida. Here are a few more details: Former Florida A&M student Lawrence Secrease was sentenced Monday to 22 months in prison and three years' supervised...
Will President Obama soon have to confront the Troy Davis case?
Posted on May 19, 2009This blog post from a UK paper, titled "Why President Obama should have Georgia on his mind," flags an issue I have been thinking about recently. Here is how the post begins: Unlike presidents Bush and Clinton, there's one potentially...
Should Conrad Black (and Jeff Skilling and others) be set free pending SCOTUS action?
Posted on May 19, 2009Though the Supreme Court's cert grant yesterday in the criminal appeal of media mogul Conrad Black raises mostly white-collar substantive criminal law issues (as noted by bloggers here and here), I am wondering if and how this should impact the...
NFL update: More on Vick's release ... while wondering about Plaxico's fate
Posted on May 19, 2009For all you reentry fans, here is the latest news from ESPN about Michael Vick's imminent release from federal prison: Concerned about Michael Vick's security, the federal bureau of prisons remains secretive about exactly when he will leave the federal...
More on my personal favorite surprise SCOTUS short-lister
Posted on May 19, 2009As noted in this prior post, I was surprised and pleased to hear my co-author and pal (and sentencing guru) Nora Demleitner, the current Dean at Hofstra University School of Law, on an NPR segment suggesting novel SCOTUS short-list names....
Notable Fifth Circuit ruling about reach/impact of Kimbrough
Posted on May 19, 2009The Fifth Circuit issued a notable sentencing ruling yesterday in US v. Simmons, No. 08-60755 (5th Cir. May 18, 2009) (available here). This case has bounced up and down as the district court and the Fifth Circuit try to figure...
Are there broader lessons to be drawn from Michael Vick's up-coming prisoner reentry story?
Posted on May 18, 2009I cannot listen to sport radio without being reminded of an interesting criminal justice story unfolding this week: Michael Vick is scheduled to be released from the federal prison in Leavenworth after serving about 19 months of his 23-month federal....
Another example of the long slog of seeking death in California
Posted on May 18, 2009The Los Angeles Times has this interesting new article on the administration of the death penalty in California, which is headlined "'Dysfunctional' death penalty racks up 28-year, $5-million tab: And that's just for one case. Michael Ray Burgener's death sentence...
"Pot Activist Sentenced To 10 Years For Growing 1,000 Plants"
Posted on May 18, 2009The title of this post is the title of this interesting article reporting on a federal sentencing from California. Here are some more details: A federal judge in San Francisco Monday sentenced a Lake County man to 10 years in...
Any last-minute predictions about the Lori Drew cyber-bullying case?
Posted on May 18, 2009As detailed in this new Los Angeles Times posting, Lori Drew, who was "convicted of committing a hoax on the social networking site MySpace that led to the suicide of a 13-year-old girl, is scheduled to be sentenced this afternoon...
Interesting group of cert grants from SCOTUS
Posted on May 18, 2009As noted in this post last week, the SCOTUSblog folks had about a half-dozen criminal law cases on their list of ?Petitions to Watch.? Though I have not yet figured out the fate of all of these watched cases, the...
For a very different SCOTUS short list...
Posted on May 18, 2009be sure to check out this segment, titled "Supreme Court Choices You Haven't Heard Of," from NPR's "Weekend Edition Sunday." Among the names I heard on the NPR nominee list of choices I had not heard was my co-author Nora...
Notable materials from the Missouri Sentencing Advisory Commission
Posted on May 17, 2009Though I am usually able to keep up with most of the activities of the US Sentencing Commission (and most of the stuff posted on its website), I never have enough time to review (and praise) all the interesting and...
Interesting sentencing doings at this week's ALI annual meeting
Posted on May 17, 2009As regular readers may know, The American Law Institute has been working on a revision of the sentencing provisions of the Model Penal Code for nearly a decade. And, as detailed in this tentative agenda, this week's annual meeting of...
Effective primer on sex offender residency restrictions
Posted on May 17, 2009Now available via SSRN is this piece, titled "Residency Restrictions for Convicted Sex Offenders: A Popular Approach on Questionnable Footing," that provides an effective review of the law and policy of sex offender residency restrictions. Here is the abstract: Municipalities...
Seeking more number crunching and deep thoughts on the great writ
Posted on May 16, 2009US District Judge Lynn Adelman's new article titled "The Great Writ Diminished" aspires to "stimulate a discussion about the current state of habeas corpus. Wonderfully, the article has already started such a discussion in these blog comments, and I want...
Notable report on the impact of the prison economy in the Sunshine State
Posted on May 16, 2009Thanks to this post at Grits for Breakfast, I found this fascinating local article from Florida headlined "Budget reality hits GOP's get-tough-on-crime stance." Here are some highlights: With the state short on cash and prison beds, Republicans in the Florida...
Scholarly concerns about the CVRA
Posted on May 15, 2009Regular readers may sense that I am a fan of victim participation in sentencing, which in turn make me a fan of the federal Crime Victimsi Rights Act. But this new piece appearing on SSRN, titled "The Limits of Victims'...
Lots of dynamic death penalty debates in Missouri, while other states execute
Posted on May 15, 2009This new article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, headlined "Legal challenges over, Missouri plans to resume executions next week," provides details on the latest death penalty developments in the Show Me State. Here are a few of the interesting details:...
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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...

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...








