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The Ascent of the Administrative State and the Demise of Mercy

By standdown

That's the title of an essay in the current Harvard Law Review by Rachel Barkow.  LINK  Here are two excerpts from the introduction: There are currently more than two million people behind bars in the United States. Over five million people are on probation or some other form of supervised release. Prisoners are serving ever-longer sentences. Presidential and gubernatorial grants of clemency are rare events. The use of jury nullification to check harsh or overbroad laws is viewed by judges and other legal elites with suspicion. These are punitive, unforgiving times. Although a great deal of scholarship has sought to explain the incarceration boom and the rise in punishment, very little work has focused on the reasons why forms of mercy have been on the decline...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on March 28, 2008 (boomark / email).