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Irizarry is interesting, but is it important or just iterant?

By Douglas A. Berman

The three short opinions in Irizarry are all quite interesting (basics here), though I am not sure upon first read whether the ruling is very important or just a review of matters established by modern Booker progeny like Gall and Kimbrough.  Here is key language from the majority opinion by Justice Stevens that serves to emphasize the departure/variance distinction:?Departure? is a term of art under the Guidelines and refers only to non-Guidelines sentences imposed under the framework set out in the Guidelines.... Although the Guidelines, as the ?starting point and the initial benchmark,? continue to play a role in the sentencing determination, see Gall, 552 U. S., at ___ (slip op., at 11), there is no longer a limit comparable to the one at issue in Burns on the variances from Guidelines ranges that a District Court may find justified under the sentencing factors set forth in 18 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on June 12, 2008 (boomark / email).