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Practitioner?s Note: Acquitted Conduct in the News (Again)

By Douglas A. Berman

The use of acquitted conduct as a basis for enhancing punishments remains the sentencing issue that won?t go away.  A spate of recent decisions and articles once again brings to the fore the controversy over a practice that already once reached the Supreme Court ? where, in United States v. Watts, it was approved ? at a time when the guidelines were still mandatory.  The August edition of the ABA Journal, here, prominently features Doug Berman, who is quoted as stating that the constitutionality of the practice has been called into question anew by the Court?s more recent sentencing decisions.  The article discusses United States v. Hurn, a case in which a drug defendant?s guideline exposure was raised from 27-33 months to 16-20 years on the basis of distribution counts of which he was acquitted...continue to full post

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