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Sentencing Law and Policy 

News, issues, commentary and provides resources related to sentencing law and policy.
Post Frequency: 77.7/day Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 10:54:24 Recent Entries: 4815
By Douglas A. Berman
Go to Sentencing Law and Policy, find other Criminal Law blogs, or browse all law blogs.
Do prosecutors gone bad often get breaks at sentencing?
Posted on March 11, 2009This local story from Pennsylvania, headlined "Former prosecutor gets house arrest for corrupting minors," has me wondering if all bad apple prosecutors get good breaks at sentencing. Here are the basics: Anthony Cappuccio had an image that inspired trust...
Names starting to emerge for early Obama circuit court nominees
Posted on March 11, 2009This new article in the New York Times, headlined "Obama?s Court Nominees Are Focus of Speculation," starts naming some of the names that President Obama might name for federal circuit court positions. Here are excerpts from the article: President Obama...
Notable Ninth Circuit dissents about reasonableness review from deneial of rehearing en banc
Posted on March 11, 2009I noted here last summer a notable split Ninth Circuit ruling affirming a below-guideline probation sentence in US v. Whitehead, No. 05-50458 (9th Cir. July 14, 2008) (available here). Today, rehearing en banc was denied in the Whitehead case, and...
Timely conference (and blog) on the "California Correctional Crisis"
Posted on March 11, 2009I am pleased to spotlight a terrific conference sponsored by UC Hastings College of the Law next week. As detailed here, the conference is titled ?The California Correctional Crisis,? and it will bring together an amazing group of public officials,...
"Where's the Bone for Bernie Madoff?"
Posted on March 11, 2009The title of this post is the title of this query by Jeralyn at TalkLeft. The question reflects my own reaction when I hear that Madoff will be pleading guilty without the benefit of a plea agreement. Here is part...
New NYCLU report on Rockefeller drug laws
Posted on March 11, 2009As detailed in this official press release, the New York Civil Liberties Union today released a new report on the impact of the state's Rockefeller Drug Laws. The report's title, "The Rockefeller Drug Laws: Unjust, Irrational, Ineffective," provides a pretty...
Latest FSR issue, focused on sex offenders, now available on-line
Posted on March 10, 2009I am pleased to report that the latest issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter is available on-line. The issue is titled "Sex Offender: Recent Developments in Punishment and Management." Professor Michael O?Hear, the chief editor who assembled a great set...
Two more executions in two states not debating the death penalty
Posted on March 10, 2009Though the fate of the death penalty continues to be debate in many states, tonight Texas and Georgia got on with the business of carrying out executions. Here are details from this AP report: A man convicted of a double...
Basic Madoff plea details emerging
Posted on March 10, 2009As now reported by all the major media outlets, the specifics of the charges and expected plea in the financial frauds committed by Bernie Madoff are coming into focus. This Bloomberg story has many of the latest particulars: Bernard Madoff,...
Effective NPR coverage of supermax prisons and solitary confinement
Posted on March 10, 2009Thanks to this post at How Appealing, I discovered that National Public Radio has recently run a series of effective pieces on supermax prisons and solitary confinement. Here are the links as assembled there: This past Sunday's broadcast of "All...
Running the federal sentencing guideline numbers for Bernie Madoff
Posted on March 10, 2009The recent legal developments in the prosecution of Bernie Madoff (details here) have lots of folks buzzing about not just his expected guilty plea, but also his possible federal sentence. Helpfully, today's Boston Herald has this new article that, as...
Notable stories of sex and death from the local papers
Posted on March 10, 2009I just got around to reading these two local stories from the Sunday papers on the notable topics of "sexting" and the administration of the death penalty: From the Orlando Sentinel here, "'Sexting' teenagers face child-porn charges: 20% of teens...
Litigation advice for white-collar sentencing after Kimbrough
Posted on March 09, 2009A helpful reader passed along (and got me permission to post) an effective little article about federal sentencing that was recently published in the ABA's Criminal Litigation. The piece discusses the impact of Kimbrough, with an extra focus on white-collar...
An SCOTUS exchange in a cert. denial concerning a long stay on death row
Posted on March 09, 2009As detailed in this CNN report, a few Supreme Court Justices discussed the death penalty in little separate opinion response to the denial of cert in a Florida capital case. Here are the basics: Two Supreme Court justices on opposite...
The lack of originalist justification for excluding felons from the Second Amendment
Posted on March 09, 2009I just saw on SSRN this notable article by Carlton Larson about the Supreme Court's work in Heller, titled "Four Exceptions in Search of a Theory: District of Columbia v. Heller and Judicial Ipse Dixit." Here is the abstract: This...
More calls for an end to the drug war and legalization of marijuana
Posted on March 09, 2009The number of voices calling for and end to the drug war and/or the legalization of marijuana continues to grow. For example, this cover story in The Economist this week is titled "Failed states and failed policies; How to stop...
The persistence of pre-Booker precedents in a post-Booker world
Posted on March 09, 2009The Sixth Circuit's work today in US v. Blue, No. 07-5296 (6th Cir. March 9, 2009) (available here), provides yet another example that, even years after the Bookerdecision, many sentencings and appeals march forward as if the pre-Booker world was...
Should all sex offenders be barred from Facebook and MySpace?
Posted on March 09, 2009The question in the title of this post is being debated now in Illinois as a result of new bills being proposed by some legislators. This local article, headlined " GOP bills about sex offenders draw ire: Rights groups, others...
Federal courts becoming more transparent ... will SCOTUS follow?
Posted on March 06, 2009This AP new article, headlined "Live coverage boosts access to federal courtrooms," highlights the growing tendency of federal trial courts to be more open and transparent even in criminal cases. Here are snippets from the piece: In a victory for...
Understanding why it may be hard to say sorry
Posted on March 06, 2009As detailed in some of the links below, there has been a lot of interesting recent discussion of the role of apologies in the criminal system. Consequently, this new paper on SSRN, titled "Saving Face: The Benefits of Not Saying...
Opaque Eighth Circuit ruling rejects challenge to long gun-possession sentence
Posted on March 05, 2009Lots of death penalty talk in state legislatures ... while Texas keeps up record execution pace
Posted on March 04, 2009Previous | Next
Japan's International Child Abduction Policy
By Kirsten Brown (AXcess News) Washington - Four fathers quietly f...
Eminent domain, demographics and immigration policy
On the face of it, you may be wondering what eminent domain,...
I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
Does failure to provide health insurance benefits at the time promised constitute harm to the employee?
Yes. Failure to provide health insurance benefits is a violation of Labor Law ob...
My job requires me to drive bank deposits up to two times a day using my own vehicle and gas. Although not too far, can should I be receiving compensation? One deposit run is required daily by company policy, but the man
you should be getting a mileage comp. I own my own company and I pay my employee...
Can i sue my employer for breach of Contract?
i would suggest you get professional advice
from what you have put here yo...

I have worked for this employer for only three weeks. The employer makes up his own rules as to what he chooses to report for the purpose of property taxes. He tells me to "let them come after us". He defines Entertain
He arrogantly insists, "let them come after us." Well, if you are invo...
I was fired on June 3, 2002 in Massachusetts because I reported discriminatory behavior by the employer towards a particular nationality. In July I filed a discrimination/retaliation complaint against the employer with t
It seem sin your case that the fact you filed the complaint prior to being dissa...
Does failure to provide health insurance benefits at the time promised constitute harm to the employee?
Yes. Failure to provide health insurance benefits is a violation of Labor Law ob...
My job requires me to drive bank deposits up to two times a day using my own vehicle and gas. Although not too far, can should I be receiving compensation? One deposit run is required daily by company policy, but the man
you should be getting a mileage comp. I own my own company and I pay my employee...
Can i sue my employer for breach of Contract?
i would suggest you get professional advice
from what you have put here yo...








