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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.
New article looking at post-Booker sentencing appeals
Posted on August 12, 2008Though I have just barely begun my post-vacation catch-up reading, this new piece appearing on SSRN is going to the top of the reading pile. The piece by Carissa Byrne Hessick and F. Andrew Hessick III, which covers one of...
Updates on post-Heller Second Amendment litigation
Posted on August 12, 2008As regular readers will recall, I predicted lots and lots of lower court litigation driven by federal criminal defendants in the wake of the Supreme Court's Heller Second Amendment ruling. Eugene Volokh has been doing an effective job keeping up...
"You can't handle the truth" ... about prison overcrowding
Posted on August 12, 2008This AP article from Oklahoma, headlined "Speaker denies requests for prison studies," makes me think of the great scene from "A Few Good Men" in which Jack Nicholson's character famously rebukes an effort by Tom Crusie's character to get at...
What were the biggest (or most blogworthy) sentencing stories while I was away?
Posted on August 11, 2008Though I was only on-line a few times while away, thanks to terrific guest bloggers I was able to keep up with major sentencing developments by reading my own blog. The story that was most dynamic and dramatic during my...
"Cruel and Unequal Punishment"
Posted on August 11, 2008The title of this post is the title of this new piece on SSRN from Nita Farahany. Here is the interesting abstract: This article argues Atkins and its progeny of categorical exemptions to the death penalty create and new and...
New policy paper on reducing recidivism
Posted on August 11, 2008Today a kind reader sent me this link to a new policy paper from The Progressive Policy Institute, titled "Stop Revolving-Door Justice: How Corrections Systems Can Reduce Recidivism." Here is part of the start of the paper: While criminals are...
USSC proposes latest priorities and requests public comments
Posted on August 11, 2008The US Sentencing Commission on its website has now posted here its "Federal Register Notice of proposed priorities and request for public comment." The USSC's homepage explains that as "part of its statutory authority and responsibility to analyze sentencing issues,...
Catching up with some notable headlines
Posted on August 11, 2008I am a bit overwhelmed trying to catch up with various sentencing stories after being off-line most of the last two weeks. For example, all these headlines from recent news stories caught my eye: From the Atlanta Journal Constitution here,...
I'm back, behind and grateful...
Posted on August 10, 2008for the extraordinary effort and the outstanding work of the guest bloggers. The reviews appear to be positive, at least based on these comments. And, because my whole family enjoyed my time away from the computer, I am pretty confident...
Goodbye from the Guest Bloggers
Posted on August 08, 2008Today is our final day of guest blogging for Sentencing Law and Policy. We thank everyone for reading our posts, and for offering invariably thoughtful and incisive comments. We were glad to see that some of our posts sparked interesting...
Practitioner?s Note: Acquitted Conduct in the News (Again)
Posted on August 08, 2008The use of acquitted conduct as a basis for enhancing punishments remains the sentencing issue that won?t go away. A spate of recent decisions and articles once again brings to the fore the controversy over a practice that already once...
Four Former National Century Financial Enterprises Executives Sentenced
Posted on August 08, 2008National Century Financial Enterprises (NCFE), based in Dublin, Ohio, was one of the largest healthcare finance companies in the United States until it filed for bankruptcy in November 2002. According to press reports, investors were bilked out of approximately $2...
Former Refco Inc. President Tone N. Grant Sentenced to 10 years
Posted on August 08, 2008Former Refco Inc. President Tone N. Grant was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for his role in the company's collapse, covered here. According to the article, defense lawyers for Grant, a former Yale University quarterback and decorated Marine...
Practitioner's Notes: California to Integrate Prisons (At Last)
Posted on August 08, 2008As recent news articles have described, here and here, the State of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has finally taken tentative steps toward integrating its prisons. For many years, California had been one of the only states to...
Guest Blogging
Posted on August 08, 2008Dear Readers: Proskauer Rose is guest blogging while Doug is on vacation. Posts by individual authors are signed by each author. Posts that result from a collaborative effort are signed by "Guest bloggers." We may be contacted at this address...
Hamdan, Osama Bin Laden?s Driver, Sentenced to 5 and a Half Years
Posted on August 07, 2008Salim Hamdan, the Yemeni national who was Osama Bin Laden?s driver, and the first person to be tried by a military commission in 60 years, was sentenced today to 66 months in a detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for providing...
District Court Declines to Extend Booker to § 3582 Resentencings
Posted on August 07, 2008On Monday, in United States v. Atwell, the Middle District of Florida held that Booker should not be extended and applied to § 3582 resentencings. Randall Atwell had been convicted of possession with intent to distribute and distribution of more...
Before a Sentencing Court Turns Assault Into Murder, It Needs to Follow the Proper Standards
Posted on August 07, 2008Yesterday, in United States v. Azure, the Eighth Circuit vacated and remanded the sentence imposed on defendant Tamara Azure, a/k/a Tamara Wind, after the district court essentially used two assault convictions to impose a sentence for a dismissed murder charge...
Riding the Booker Rapids
Posted on August 07, 2008Yesterday, the First Circuit announced its decision in United States v. Russell, available here, a case that ?crystallizes the difficulties confronted by defendants - and district court judges - as they navigate the turbulent waters of Booker and its aftermath...
Oregon Court Offers Pizza and Chicken in Exchange for Murderer?s Guilty Plea
Posted on August 07, 2008Citing benefits to judicial economy, Deputy District Attorney Josh Lamborn agreed with the decision of Multnomah County Judge Eric Bergstrom to provide a confessed murderer, Tremayne Durham, with KFC Chicken and sides in exchange for a guilty plea to the...
Guest Blogging
Posted on August 07, 2008Dear Readers: Proskauer Rose is guest blogging while Doug is on vacation. Posts by individual authors are signed by each author. Posts that result from a collaborative effort are signed by "Guest bloggers." We may be contacted at this address...
Medellin Executed After Supreme Court Ruling
Posted on August 06, 2008Yesterday, in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court denied Jose Medellin's application for a stay of execution. Medellin was executed soon thereafter. There continues to be an extraordinary degree of coverage of the story, including a comprehensive write-up by SCOTUSblog,...
Third Circuit Holds that Alternative Sentence Under § 3553(a) Renders Potential Guidelines Error ?Harmless?
Posted on August 06, 2008Monday, in United States v. Santiago-Bautista, available here, the Third Circuit effectively allowed a sentencing court to insulate itself from appeal by holding that any error in calculating the guidelines was rendered harmless by the district court?s articulation of an...
Seventh Circuit Vacates and Remands Case For Resentencing As District Court Failed to Apply Correct Standard of Proof
Posted on August 06, 2008In United States v. Schroeder, the Seventh Circuit clarified the important distinction between the standard for admissibility of evidence at sentencing hearings and the government?s burden of proof with respect to a disputed fact -- in this case, the amount...
Guest Bloggers
Posted on August 06, 2008Dear Readers: Proskauer Rose is guest blogging while Doug is on vacation. Posts by individual authors are signed by each author. Posts that result from a collaborative effort are signed by "Guest bloggers." We may be contacted at this address...
Continuing Medellin Coverage
Posted on August 05, 2008As reported here by SCOTUSblog earlier today, on Monday evening Medellin?s attorneys filed a reply brief in the Supreme Court again urging the Court to put his execution on hold in order to allow Congress to enact legislation implementing the...
Practitioner's Notes: Federal Sentencing Guideline Analysis Has No Place in State Court
Posted on August 05, 2008It seems obvious, at least to me, that the federal sentencing guidelines do not apply in state courts. Indeed, there is an intermediate appellate decision in New York in which this ?issue? was addressed by the court. The Appellate Division,...
Guest Blogging
Posted on August 05, 2008Dear Readers: Proskauer Rose is guest blogging while Doug is on vacation. Posts by individual authors are signed by each author. Posts that result from a collaborative effort are signed by "Guest bloggers." We may be contacted at this address...
Practitioner?s Notes: Don?t Get Trapped by a Sentencing ?Floor? ? the Importance of the Order in which Co-Defendants Are Sentenced
Posted on August 04, 2008In a multi-defendant case, there?s one factor that is not discussed by the guidelines but, in practice, has the potential to have a dramatic effect on your client?s sentence: the order in which the co-defendants are sentenced. How so? Intra-case...
Sixth Circuit Overturns Sentence of Death Due to Ineffective Counsel
Posted on August 04, 2008In Van Hook v. Anderson, available here, the Sixth Circuit reversed a decision by the district court and granted the habeas petition of Robert Van Hook, who was sentenced to death for a 1985 murder. The Circuit reversed the death...
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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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