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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.
A private technocorrections development to watch for sex offenders
Posted on July 22, 2008This local article discusses a notable new technology that school are using to try to prevent sex offenders from getting into schools: The device scans a visitor's driver's license to quickly let school personnel know if the visitor is on...
Federal prosecutors seeking tough sentence for political corruption
Posted on July 22, 2008The latest development in the sentencing of a former Newark major is reported in this local article, headlined "Tough sentence sought for Sharpe James." Here are some details: Federal prosecutors Monday urged a federal judge to put former Newark Mayor...
Prison overcrowding problems in the UK
Posted on July 22, 2008As detailed by these various news reports, folks across the pond are having American-style prison overcrowding problem: Prison overcrowding 'down to lack of proper resources' Prisoners 'sleeping in toilets' Criminal justice reforms a 'significant contributor' to prison overcrowding, say MPs...
Louisiana seeks rehearing in Kennedy child rape case (with some notable lawyers helping out)
Posted on July 21, 2008As detailed in this SCOTUSblog post, "Louisiana on Monday asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its ruling a month ago striking down the death penalty for the crime of child rape." Here are more particulars: The rehearing petition, citing an...
A telling consequence of severe white-collar sentencing guidelines and the trial penalty
Posted on July 21, 2008This intriguing new article available from law.com, headlined "Federal Judge Refuses to Accept Guilty Plea in Health Care Fraud Case," spotlights one of the many pernicious effects of severe white-collar sentencing guidelines and the extreme trial penalty that white-collar offenders...
You know your political state senate colleagues don't like you when...
Posted on July 21, 2008they write a public letter to a federal judge asking that he impose a maximum sentencing at your upcoming sentencing. That is the news from New Jersey according to this post, headlined "GOP senators call for maximum sentencing for James."...
Should all "true" first offenders now get a sentencing discount in light of Gall and Kimbrough?
Posted on July 21, 2008In the olden days when the federal sentencing guidelines were mandatory, the Supreme Court in Koon indicated that a district court departing downward from Criminal History Category I would "abuse[] its discretion by considering [a first offender's] low likelihood of...
CNN coverage of San Quentin's Prison University Project
Posted on July 21, 2008CNN has this upbeat story about education efforts in one of California's most famous prisons. Here are snippets: Lt. Sam Robinson, a 27-year veteran of San Quentin, gave a tour of 27 vocational programs run by about 3,000 volunteers as...
More evidence that it's the prison economy, stupid
Posted on July 21, 2008This local article from North Carolina, headlined "Expanding prisons mean more jobs," highlights how mass incarceration trends get supported by what could be called prison-idustrial complex: With the new state budget, lawmakers have approved more than $30 million over the...
Is LA Gov. Jindal about to flip-flop on capital child rape?
Posted on July 20, 2008As reported here at SCOTUSblog, tomorrow "is the deadline to seek rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana (07-343), though there has been no indication the state of Louisiana will seek rehearing...." I will be very disappointed if Louisiana does not petition...
Another review of felon efforts to assert Second Amendment rights
Posted on July 20, 2008The AP has this new piece, headlined "Guns ruling spawns legal challenges by felons," examining one of my favorite post-Heller topics. Here are a few excerpts: [C]riminal defense lawyers say the high court's decision means federal laws designed to keep...
A bloggy plea to look closely at pleas
Posted on July 20, 2008I am pleased to see a new member of the legal blogosphere focused on pleas. The new blog, The Plea Bargaining Blog, describes itself this way: The Plea Bargaining Blog is dedicated to scholarship, articles and news regarding plea bargaining...
Will Prez Bush become merciful again as his term concludes?
Posted on July 19, 2008This great new New York Times piece, headlined "Felons Seeking Bush Pardon Near a Record," raises the important question of whether Scooter Libby and lots of other felons will be the beneficiary of a final blast of compassionate conservativism from...
Another high-profile request for leniency based on offender characteristics
Posted on July 19, 2008It has long been the practice at sentencing that prosecutors stress the awfulness of the offense and defense attorneys stress the not-so-awfulness of the offender. But after Booker, this dichotomy in sentencing perspective is so evident in so many high-profile...
Senator Biden proposes "Justice Integrity Act" to study federal criminal justice disparities
Posted on July 18, 2008Perhaps because the bill he introduced last week has gotten no press coverage, I only recently learned about Senator Joe Biden's encouraging efforts to examine racial and ethnic disparities in the federal criminal justice system. The basics of the bill...
Catching up with beneficiaries of crack retroactivity
Posted on July 18, 2008The Boston Globe has this notable new piece headlined "Inequity's end means new start for 31: Crack offenders from Mass. see US sentences trimmed." Here are snippets: In December, the Sentencing Commission reduced the sentencing range for certain crack offenses...
Party night tip: Be sentencing safe when you surf and post
Posted on July 18, 2008This new CBS/AP story, headlined "Drinking, Driving And Facebook Don't Mix: Web Networking Photos Come Back To Bite Defendants," provides another twist on our modern brave new world of sentencing technologies. Here are snippets from a story that provides a...
Two circuits do ho-hum affirmances of acquitted gun sentencing enhancements
Posted on July 18, 2008Thanks to two readers, I saw on my way out the door this afternoon that both the Fifth Circuit in US v. Casper, No. 06-11381 (5th Cir. July 18, 2008) (available here), and the Tenth Circuit in US v. Salis,...
En banc Third Circuit constitutionally distinguishes animal porn from child porn
Posted on July 18, 2008In a ruling that surely will not please aminal rights activists (but provides great material for teachers of animal law), the en banc Third Circuit today found unconstitutional a federal law criminalizing the sale of creation, sale, or possession of....
Predicting Heller's future
Posted on July 18, 2008Effective and scholarly Heller analysis is coming fast and furious from various sources. Joyfully, lots of the best reads are also relatively brief like the effect piece by Glenn Reynolds and Brannon Denning on here at the Northwestern Law Review's...
Breaking news: SCOTUS has powerful people constraining (the tyranny of?) the majority
Posted on July 18, 2008I find intriguing (and a bit amusing) this review of the Supreme Court term by Edward Lazarus has this essay online at FindLaw. The piece is titled "What the Past Term Reveals About the Roberts Court: Evidence that the Court...
Minnesota community trying juve sentencing circles
Posted on July 18, 2008This local story, headlined "Juvenile sentencing circles take aim at youth crime rates," describes at length a sentencing innovation being tried in Minnesota: With the hope of solving high juvenile crime rates in Nobles County, Juvenile Restorative Justice Agent Erin...
Lots of Heller and a notable Ninth Circuit ruling
Posted on July 17, 2008There's lots of interesting Heller discussion going on over at The Volokh Conspiracy, and one post from Eugene Volokh really caught me eye and has me concerned again that courts (and also Eugene) are not prepared to take the implication...
Another notable discussion of Booker ex post issues
Posted on July 17, 2008When it rains, it pours -- at least as to ex post Booker decisions from the circuit courts. Hot on the heels of this week's DC Circuit discussion of this issue comes US v. Duane, No. 06-6536 (6th Cir. July...
Texas shrugs in response to World Court call for execution stays
Posted on July 17, 2008As well covered yesterday by SCOTUSblog and DPIC, yesterday the World Court issued a ruling calling for a stop to five scheduled Texas executions. Here are the basics on the ruling from SCOTUSblog: Acting on a claim by Mexico?s government...
DC CIrcuit notes, then avoids, circuit split over ex post facto Booker issue
Posted on July 16, 2008The DC Circuit yesterday in US v. Andrews, No. 07-3024 (DC Cir. July 15, 2008) (available here), had this notable discussion, and dodge, of ex post facto issues after Booker: [I]n its 2005 opinion in United States v. Booker, the...
Can too many child rapes be a constitutional argument against making this crime death-eligible?
Posted on July 16, 2008I am intrigued but troubled by the arguments developed by John J. Donohue III and Daniel Schuker over at Balkanization, in this post titled "Dodging the Death Penalty Bullet for Child Rape." The post asserts that Supreme Court's decision in...
"Empirical Desert"
Posted on July 16, 2008The title of this post is the title of this paper on SSRN from Paul Robertson. Here is the abstract: It has long been assumed that the goals of doing justice and fighting crime necessarily conflict. Retributivists and utilitarian crime-control...
New Jersey court rejects municipal sex offender residency restriction
Posted on July 16, 2008As detailed in this Newark Star Ledger article, a state intermediate appeals court ruled yesterday that local towns cannot enact their own sex offender restrictions within New Jersey. Here are details: In a unanimous decision, the three-judge panel said Megan's...
Austrailian study on restorative sentencing alternative
Posted on July 16, 2008This brief story from Austrailia suggests that a restorative justice process, known as sentencing circles, have not proven to be more effective at reducing recidivism than traditional sentencing processes: A new report has found circle sentencing does not reduce the...
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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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