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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 student note proposing new framework for assessing computer conditions
Posted on October 31, 2010A helpful reader altered me to this notable new student note by Gabriel Gillett, headlined "A World Without Internet: A New Framework for Analyzing Supervised Release Conditions that Restrict Computer and Internet Access." Here is the abstract: This Note explores...
Decorated Vietnam vet gets way below-guideline sentence for child porn
Posted on October 30, 2010This notable local article from South Dakota, which is headlined "War vet sentenced 18 months for child porn," reports on another interesting and notable federal sentencing case involving a child porn downloader. Here are the fascinating details: A decorated Vietnam...
Will white-collar offenders get special sentencing help from new guidelines on age?
Posted on October 29, 2010The question in the title of this post is prompted by this Bloomberg story, which is headlined "White-Collar Criminals in US May Invoke Age to Seek Lighter Sentence." Here are excerpts: Elderly people convicted of financial fraud and other federal...
"Pot and the GOP: Is the party of ?Just Say No? morphing into the party of ?Just Say Grow??"
Posted on October 29, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this notable and effective new piece in Newsweek. Here are excerpts: You?d expect aging flower children to fight for the right to get high. But aging conservatives? As the ideals of...
Misguided poster child for New York Times to claim "No Justification" for the death penalty
Posted on October 29, 2010The New York Times this morning has this notable editorial headlined "No Justification," which uses the latest kerfuffle over Arizona's execution of Jeffrey Landrigan earlier this week to assail the death penalty. Here is how the editorial begins: Two years...
Noting the impact of Graham for all juve LWOP sentences
Posted on October 29, 2010Today's Wall Street Journal take note of the echoes of the Supreme Court's ruling last Term in Graham v. Florida via this effective article, headlined "Judges Forced to Revisit Juveniles' Life Sentences." Here are excerpts: Judges are grappling with whether...
Nicholas Kristof urging that we "End the War on Pot"
Posted on October 28, 2010One of the many (beneficial?) consequences of Proposition 19 being on the ballot in California is that it has enabled and seemingly encouraged major commentators to urge in major papers that we consider a whole new approach to marijuana laws...
Noting that the circuits are getting behind below-guideline kiddie porn downloading sentences
Posted on October 28, 2010This morning's Legal Intelligencer has this new piece discussing the Third Circuit's important Grober ruling from earlier this week (discussed here). The piece is headlined "Appeals Courts Criticize Child Porn Sentencing Guidelines," and here is how it gets started: As...
Interesting and notable federal clemency developments on two front
Posted on October 28, 2010Thanks to the effective work by Josh Gerstein at Politico, everyone can catch up quickly on these two new and notable federal clemency stories: President Obama denies batch of pardons Appeals court orders release of failed pardon applicants Both of...
Why is Obama's DOJ, after urging Congress to "completely eliminate" any crack/powder disparity, now seeking to keep the 100-1 ratio in place as long as possible?
Posted on October 28, 2010There are lots of notable and important aspects to the thoughtful new opinion by US District Judge D. Brock Hornby in US v. Douglas, No. 09-202-P-H (D. Maine Oct. 27, 2010) (available here), which concludes that a defendant guilty of...
Great new Vera Institute report on how states are trying to balance tight budget and public safety
Posted on October 28, 2010I received via e-mail blast this afternoon this helpful heads-up about a helpful new report about state corrections practices: A report released today by the Vera Institute of Justice?s Center on Sentencing and Corrections suggests that after decades of increases...
"Elderly, Ill Sex Offender Sues Perry Over Monitor"
Posted on October 27, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this interesting and effective new piece from the Texas Tribune reporting on interesting technocorrections developments and litigation in the Lone Star State. Here are the particulars: Sixty-one-year-old Marvin Brown has had...
With SCOTUS blessing and foreign drugs, Arizona completes lethal injection execution
Posted on October 27, 2010As detailed in this CNN story, which is headlined "Arizona convicted killer's last words: 'Boomer Sooner'," the state of Arizona got to conclude a few furious days of litigation with a long-planned lethal injection execution. Here are the details: The...
"Sarah Palin E-Mail Hacker Seeks Probation, Feds Want 18 Months"
Posted on October 27, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this Wired story about my favorite high-profile (and low-importance?) sentencing story. Here are excerpts: David Kernell, the Tennessee student convicted of hacking into Sarah Palin?s personal e-mail account, has asked the...
New USDC opinion applying new FSA law to not-yet-sentenced defendants
Posted on October 27, 2010A helpful lawyer altered me to a thoughtful new opinion by US District Judge D. Brock Hornby in US v. Douglas, No. 09-202-P-H (D. Maine Oct. 27, 2010) (available here), which concludes that a defendant guilty of committing a crack...
Another notable (and disparate) child porn downloading restitution award
Posted on October 27, 2010Regular readers are familiar with the varied and disparate federal district court rulings in response to a victim of child abuse/pornography seeking restitution from criminal defendant found guilty of downloading her picture. Thanks to a reader sending me this news...
George Soros makes pitch for legalizing marijuana
Posted on October 26, 2010Today's Wall Street Journal includes this notable opinion piece by billionaire George Soros, which is headlined "Why I Support Legal Marijuana: We should invest in effective education rather than ineffective arrest and incarceration." Here is how it starts and ends:...
Split Third Circuit affirms way below-guideline sentence in major(?) child porn ruling
Posted on October 26, 2010A split Third Circuit panel has a long and dynamic set of opinion in a federal child porn sentencing case in which I was actually called as an expert witness at sentencing. The litigation and ruling in US v. Grober,...
First-degree felony murder, sentencing and plea bargaining possibilities for the "Hiccup Girl"
Posted on October 26, 2010I am teaching felony murder today in my 1L Criminal law class, and a high-profile new case has conveniently come to the fore to spotlight the issues that the traditional felony murder doctrine presents. I refer, of course, to the...
"Prop 19: The Day After"
Posted on October 26, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this interesting new piece of original reporting from The Crime Report about what we can and should expect on the pot prohibition front after next week's vote on California's proposition 19....
California Supreme Court upholds dismissal of criminal cases due to lack of judges
Posted on October 26, 2010The dysfunctionality of California's criminal justice system never ceases to surprise me, and the latest data point in this ever on-going story is reflected in this new Los Angeles Times article. The piece is headlined "State Supreme Court upholds Riverside...
Michigan trial court rejects constitutional attack on mandatory LWOP for juve killer
Posted on October 26, 2010Thanks to this post at TalkLeft (which is worth a full read), everyone can find out the outcome and read the opinion in the Michigan case previously blogged about here in which a sentencing judge was required to impose a...
Remarkable opinion with postponement of resentencing in notorious Irey case
Posted on October 25, 2010Regular readers will likely recall the Irey case, in which a split Eleventh Circuit panel initially affirmed, but thereafter decided en banc to reverse, a lengthy (but still well below-guideline) sentence given to a middle-aged man for what all agree...
Will medical marijuana initiatives pass in Arizona, Oregon and South Dakota?
Posted on October 25, 2010Though I have been paying closest attention to California's Proposition 19, which would legalize recreational marijuana use in that state, there are notable medical marijuana initiatives in three other states worth watching this election season. As highlighted on this Just...
"Youngest Guantanamo detainee pleads guilty"
Posted on October 25, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this CNN report, which raises a lot of interesting issues about plea and sentencing procedures and outcomes in a very high-profile setting. Here is are excerpts: Guantanamo Bay detainee Omar Khadr...
Maryland's gubernatorial candidates do criminal justice cross-overs
Posted on October 25, 2010Today's Baltimore Sun has this interesting new articleheadlined "Candidates cross party lines on criminal justice: O'Malley, Ehrlich differ on death penalty, rehabilitation." Here are excerpts: In a state that consistently ranks among the nation's most dangerous, former Gov...
Federal district judge blocks planned Arizona execution because of drug mystery
Posted on October 25, 2010As detailed in this new piece from the Arizona Republic, a "federal judge today blocked Tuesday's planned execution of convicted killer Jeffrey Landrigan until Landrigan's attorneys and the court have the chance to evaluate the drugs that Arizona has obtained...
Noting the impact of probation officers in the federal sentencing process
Posted on October 24, 2010A rarely discussed but important issue of federal sentencing practice is examined in this Roanoke Times piece, which is headlined "Federal sentences are not clear-cut Quite often, a judge will weigh heavily what a probation officer suggests in a pre-sentence...
Taking stock of the costs of life and death (sentences) in Maryland
Posted on October 24, 2010Today's Baltimore Sun has this interesting pieceheadlined "The steep price of 'life means life' in Maryland: Time for a commission on the cost of allowing governors to say no to parole for even senior lifers." Here are excerpts: When the...
Adding my two cents concerning application of the FSA to pending cases
Posted on October 24, 2010As I noted in recent posts here and here, I think some courts have been a bit too quick to assert that defendants who committed crack offenses before the enactment of the Fair Sentencing Act can get no benefit from...
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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...
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It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
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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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