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Deconstructing the federal relevant conduct guidelines

By Douglas A. Berman

As first noted here, the federal defenders are hard at work on an important post-Gall/Kimbrough project entitled "Deconstructing the Guidelines."  The first paper in the series addressed the child porn guidelines (discussed here); the second paper examined the career offender guidelines (discussed here).  The latest extraordinary paper in this extraordinary series is titled "Deconstructing the Relevant Conduct Guideline: Challenging the Use of Uncharged and Acquitted Offenses in Sentencing," and it is available at this link.  Here are excerpts from start of this paper: Under certain portions of the ?relevant conduct? guideline and its commentary, judges are required to calculate the guideline range based not only on the crime of conviction, but on separate crimes, comprised of their own elements, of which the defendant was acquitted, with which the defendant was never charged, or which were dismissed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on July 08, 2008 (boomark / email).