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SCOTUS discusses restitution deadlines in Dolan

By Douglas A. Berman

As a fan of sentencing options beyond just incarceration, I am probably one of a very small group of sentencing geeks excited to find time this evening to read the transcript from today's SCOTUS oral argument in Dolan v. US.  The transcript is available at this link, and this press report about the argument suggests that some pretty interesting jurisprudential issues are in play: The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether a judge had the authority to order restitution more than 90 days after sentencing in the case of a hitchhiker's attacker. "The victim gets nothing because the judge waited too long," Justice Samuel Alito said, paraphrasing the appeal. "Do you think that is what Congress had in mind?" For the first time since 1990, the justices agreed to interpret federal restitution law in the case of Brian Dolan, who beat up a hitchhiker and left him on the side of the road, bleeding, unconscious and with several broken bones...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 20, 2010 (boomark / email).