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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.
Noticing the many costs of California's capital craziness
Posted on October 02, 2010California had quite a death penalty week, with lots of litigation and lots of stops and starts and stops again in its effort to finally execute Albert Brown three decades after he raped and murdered a teenage girl. These two...
Effective review of the five new SCOTUS criminal justice cases
Posted on October 02, 2010As noted in this prior post, this past week the US Supreme Court accepted five new criminal cases for its upcoming Term. This article in the Wisconsin Law Journal, headlined "High court accepts five criminal cases," reviews the group. Here...
Looking back playfully before looking forward to the new SCOTUS term
Posted on October 01, 2010I have not spent too much time on Supreme Court previews recently (partially because Ryder Cup previews are more timely and somewhat more interesting these days). But, especially with the new Term about to start, I had extra fun reading...
Eleventh Circuit summarily (in dicta?) asserts that FSA sentencing changes cannot impact pre-change crimes
Posted on October 01, 2010A few weeks ago in this post, I noted that the Sixth Circuit at the end of a seemingly minor opinion in US v. Carradine, No. 08-3220 (6th Cir. Sept. 20, 2010) (available here), addressed a major issue for any...
California female juve killer serving LWOP seeks (and deserves?) clemency from Governor Schwarzenegger
Posted on October 01, 2010As detailed in this local story, which is headlined "Sara Kruzan, Serving Life Without Parole, Petitions CA Governor for Release," a notable new state clemency request has been made by a female killer in California (whom, to me, seems like...
Death penalty discussion on Massachusetts AG debate
Posted on October 01, 2010As Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney tried and failed (some spectacularly) to bring the death penalty back to the Bay State. Now, as detailed in this news report headlined "AG candidates debate renewing death penalty: Mattapan killings a hot-button topic,"...
An effective (and telling) list of the "best blogs" discussing capital punishment
Posted on September 30, 2010A criminal justice website has this effective and telling compilation of "The 50 Best Blogs Discussing Capital Punishment." I call the list effective because just about every blog I have ever tripped across in my capital punishment surfing gets linked...
Significant IAC ruling from Tenth Circuit based on counsel?s failure to understand guidelines
Posted on September 30, 2010A split panel of the Tenth Circuit today handed down an interesting and important Sixth Amendment ineffective assistance of counsel ruling today in US v. Washington, No. 08-3313 (10th Cir. Sept. 30, 2010) (available here). Here is how the majority...
New report from Pew on incarceration's collateral costs
Posted on September 29, 2010As detailed in this press release, the folks at The Pew Chartiable Trusts have produced a notable new report titled "Collateral Costs: Incarceration?s Effect on Economic Mobility." The full report is available at this link, and here are highlights from...
Seventh Circuit finds that sentencing speed kills procedural reasonableness
Posted on September 29, 2010The Seventh Circuit has an interesting reasonableness ruling today in US v. Glosser, No. 08-4015 (7th Cir. Sept. 29, 2010) (available here), which gets started this way: The government appeals from a 121-month sentence a defendant received for attempting to...
"Correcting Mandatory Injustice: Judicial Recommendation of Executive Clemency"
Posted on September 29, 2010The title of this post is the title of this notable new note by Joanna Huang in the latest issue of the Duke Law Journal. Here is the abstract: P>In 1987, the United States political and social systems lost trust...
"The Role of Social Media in Sentencing Advocacy"
Posted on September 29, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this new article from the New York Law Journal. Here is how it begins: Embarrassing Facebook photos and regrettable MySpace statements are starting to become commonplace in pre-sentencing reports and disposition...
A couple of notable crime rate headlines and stories
Posted on September 29, 2010The newspapers today have headlines that provide a good news/bad news account of some of the latest crime data. First the good news, via USA Today: "Technology helps property crime fall to 20-year low." Now the bad news, via the...
"Drugs and conservatives should go together"
Posted on September 29, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this commentary in the Los Angeles Times by Jeffrey Miron, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. Here are excerpts: For decades, the U.S. debate over drug legalization has pitted conservatives...
"Calif execution try collapses after court setbacks"
Posted on September 29, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this new AP article providing the latest death penalty news from California. Here are excerpts: California's first execution attempt in nearly five years collapsed Wednesday amid two adverse court rulings in....
Georgia completes (eventful?) execution of suicidal triple murderer
Posted on September 28, 2010As detailed in this AP story, after some more delays and difficulties, Georgia was finally able to complete the execution of a triple murderer late last night. Here are some of the details: A Georgia prisoner who tried to kill...
Lots of crime (and some punishment) in big pile of cert grants from SCOTUS long conference
Posted on September 28, 2010As detailed in this post at SCOTUSblog, the Supreme Court this morning granted certiorari in fourteen new cases. The full orders list is here, and I think more than a third of the cases involve criminal justice issues: Kentucky v....
Effective new Vera report on decade of sentencing policy trends
Posted on September 28, 2010The Vera Institute of Justice?s Center on Sentencing and Corrections has published this terrific new report titled "Criminal Justice Trends: Key Legislative Changes in Sentencing Policy, 2001-2010." The report reviews key developments in sentencing legislation over the past decade, and...
"Drug expiration date pushes CA execution to brink"
Posted on September 28, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this new AP article which seeks to detail the latest execution news from California. Here are highlights: Five years ago, the planned execution of Michael Morales became so chaotic and confused...
Today's notable pot proposition commentary, news and notes
Posted on September 28, 2010There are so many interesting angle to the still-developing debates and discussions surrounding the marijuana legalization initiative in California. Here are just a few headlines that caught my eye this afternoon: From The Atlantic here, "California's Marijuana Initiative: A Problem...
California lethal injection litigation continues as condemns refuses "unconstitutionally medieval" choice
Posted on September 27, 2010As highlighted by this AP article and this CNN piece, a whole new round of litigation has been spurred by US District Judge Jeremy Fogel's decision made this past Friday to permit California to move forward with a planned execution...
"Make new crack law retroactive"
Posted on September 27, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this opinion piece appearing in today's National Law Journal authored by Harlan Protass and Mark Harris. Here is how it starts and ends: Last month, President Obama signed landmark legislation revising...
"California's idea of the death penalty is to bore them to death"
Posted on September 27, 2010The title of this post is a quote from the father of a murder victim in this notable local story, which highlights that not much is likely to change for most California defendants on death row even if the state...
Senator Jeff Sessions asks circuit nominee if she will "follow the federal sentencing guidelines"
Posted on September 27, 2010Perhaps this is not news to those following the latest federal judicial confirmation battles closely, but I found notable this new report from the Connecticut Law Tribune concerning the Senate questioning of Second Circuit nominee Susan Carney earlier this month...
"Should sex offenders get GPS before leaving prison?"
Posted on September 27, 2010The title of this post is the headline of this local California story. Here is how it gets started: At least twice in the past month, sex offenders prompted multi-agency manhunts in the North County when they refused to be...
Contrasting congressional hearings concerning federal criminalization
Posted on September 27, 2010Tomorrow, September 28, 2010, brings two notable hearings in Congress for federal criminal justice fans. But the concerns driving the morning Senate hearing and the afternoon House hearing seem to be in (direct?) tension. In the Senate, as detailed here,...
Murder convictions for drunk driver with high-profile victim
Posted on September 27, 2010As detailed in this AP article, which is headlined "Man convicted of murder in Angels pitcher's death," a California jury today returned murder convictions for a repeat drunk driver who cut short three young lives, one of which was high-profile....
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pushes back California's execution plans slightly
Posted on September 27, 2010As detailed in this new AP article, "California's first execution in nearly five years was pushed back almost two days Monday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow courts more time to consider the condemned inmate's appeals." Here are more of...
Effective review of how Florida is dealing with the aftermath of SCOTUS Graham ruling
Posted on September 26, 2010Today's Miami Herald has this effective and interesting piece discussing how the state is trying to deal with the Supreme Court's Eighth Amendment ruling in Graham concerning juve LWOP sentence for nonhomicide crimes. The article is headlined "Ruling on young,...
Latest poll suggests positive buzz surrounding California's marijuana legalization proposition
Posted on September 26, 2010The local story, which is headlined "Marijuana legalization measure gets big lift," reports on the latest polling on California's various ballot initiatives this election season. Here is how it begins: In a dramatic shift of sentiment, nearly half of California's...
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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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