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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.
A new batch of USSC data
Posted on March 29, 2008The US Sentencing Commission has a new batch of post-Booker sentencing data on its website. This new data, available here, is the "FY2008 1st Quarterly Sentencing Update," which provides an "extensive set of tables and charts presenting cumulative quarterly data...
Examining some circuits' unreasonable efforts at reasonable review
Posted on March 29, 2008A helpful reader called my attention to a new federal sentencing note (which will appear in the William & Mary Law Review this fall) now available here via SSRN. The note critically examines the effects of Rita and Gall in...
Detailed examination of administering the death penalty in California
Posted on March 29, 2008This article from the San Jose Mercury News details the latest doings in the on-going examination of death penalty realities in California. Here are excerpts: A key state justice commission Friday completed its investigation into California's death penalty, as it...
A poster child for the problem of residency restrictions
Posted on March 28, 2008Thanks to this post at the blog Iowa Champion, I saw this MSNBC article about a woman suffereing as the result of broad sex offenders residency restrictions. Here are some details: Jennifer Lower was convicted of a misdemeanor sex offense...
Effective reflections on Baze and Kennedy
Posted on March 28, 2008Though the Supreme Court has a relatively light death penalty docket this term (which I consider a cause for celebration), the two big cases are doozies. The Baze lethal injection case and the Kennedy child rape case could both produce...
A (sad? happy?) prison family values ending for the Yaegers
Posted on March 28, 2008In this post, which generated lots of comments, I asked "Should dying child justify a federal sentencing break?". Here is the end of the story that generated the question: A 10-year-old girl has died, just a day after her wish...
¡Hasta luego, amigos ... unless you learn English!
Posted on March 28, 2008This creative sentencing story from CNN, headlined "Judge: Learn English or go to jail," is sure to generate some creative sentencing debates among all my favorite commentors on a Friday. Here are the basics: A judge known for creative sentencing...
Eighth Amendment SCOTUS cert petition to watch
Posted on March 27, 2008In a pair of posts late last year (here and here), I discussed some of the interesting facets in Pittman, a South Carolina case involving the severe sentencing of a child murderer for his crime committed at age 12. The...
Detailed DPIC resource page for Kennedy child rape capital case
Posted on March 27, 2008I just discoverd that the visit Death Penalty Information Center has this new webpage on the Kennedy capital child rape case from Louisiana to be heard by the Supreme Court next month. This page hs lots of helpful information, including...
Sentencing perspectives from across the pond
Posted on March 27, 2008These two interesting articles provide two interesting sentencing perspectives from across the pond: From the Guardian here, "Too-tough judges out of touch, says Straw" From the Economist here, "Rehabilitating prisoners: A new deal"
A great event to gear up for National Crime Victims' Rights Week
Posted on March 27, 2008As detailed at this Justice Department webpage, April 13-19 this year marks National Crime Victims' Rights Week. As detailed below, I will have the good fortune of being able to attend an event a few days before this week to...
Third Circuit reverses high-profile death sentence
Posted on March 27, 2008As detailed in this AP article, a "federal appeals court on Thursday said former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal cannot be executed for murdering a Philadelphia police officer without a new penalty hearing." Here are more details from the start of...
Some SCOTUS goodies from SCOTUSblog
Posted on March 26, 2008For a variety of different reasons, these new posts at SCOTUSblog might be of interest to sentencing fans: New StatPack, Plus More on Monday?s Orders Analysis: Competency and the criminal trial In addition, there have been lots of great posts...
Is ignorance bliss as Campaign 2008 ignores crime and punishment issues?
Posted on March 26, 2008Writing here in The New Republic, Robert Gordon has a notable commentary entitled "Criminal Intent: The presidential candidates need to stop ignoring America's crime problem ? and start considering innovative solutions." Here is how the commentary begins: Here's a funny...
Ninth Circuit issues long-awaited en banc opinion on post-Booker universe
Posted on March 25, 2008Resolving a set of long-pending en banc cases concerning post-Booker realities, the Ninth Circuit in US v. Carty, No. 05-10200 (9th Cir. Mar. 24, 2008) (available here), has given its account on post-Booker sentencing. The Court's many notable bullet points...
Is there growing public concern with sentencing and prison reform?
Posted on March 25, 2008This new article, headined "Prison reform on public radar," suggests that the public is starting to take note of some sentencing and prison issues. I am not sure this is true, in part because the leading presidential candidates have so...
A judge explains the problem with prosecutorial crack reduction resistance
Posted on March 25, 2008A helpful reader sent me news of this recent ruling on a crack sentencing reduction motion, authored by Chief Judge James Jones of the Western District of Virginia, which includes this notable footnote: This district is reported to have the...
A new batch of uneventful pardons from President Bush
Posted on March 25, 2008As detailed in this AP story, "President Bush pardoned 15 people Tuesday and commuted the prison sentence of another." Here's more from the AP account (which also includes a list of those pardonees): Bush has been stingy about handing out...
Notable Fifth Circuit opinion on tricky sentencing issue
Posted on March 25, 2008As regular readers know, there are no shortage of tricky sentencing issues that arise in federal court. The blog Appellate Review spots one such issue that's produce a circuit split this post, headlined "Split Noted: Can a District Court Require...
Will Irizarry finally explain the true nature of the post-Booker world?
Posted on March 25, 2008I have mentioned before that I think the sleeper SCOTUS sentencing case this term in Irizarry, which technically addresses a seemingly little issue concerning notice for imposing sentences outside the guidelines. However, as revealed in the amicus brief supporting the...
"States win over President on criminal law issue" in Medellin
Posted on March 25, 2008I have borrowed for my title of this post the title of this post at SCOTUSblog, which reports on today's Supreme Court ruling in the capital/international case of Medillin. The full opinion is available at this link, and here is...
Who is trying to count sentencing mistakes?
Posted on March 25, 2008Writing in the New York Times, Adam Liptak's "Sidebar" column today is headlined "Consensus on Counting the Innocent: We Can't." Here are snippets: A couple of years ago, Justice Antonin Scalia, concurring in a Supreme Court death penalty decision, took...
"The Demise of Mercy" now in print
Posted on March 25, 2008In this post last year I noted the thought-provoking piece from Rachel Barkow entitled "The Ascent of the Administrative State and the Demise of Mercy." The piece is now in print as this essay in the latest issue of the...
Big SCOTUS sentencing week, starting with Burgess argument
Posted on March 24, 2008As detailed in SCOTUSblog posts here and here, an exciting sentencing week for the Justices gets off to a flying start with argument this morning in Burgess over the on what qualifies as a "felony drug offense" for federal sentencing...
A notable perjury trial with sentencing advice for Bonds, Clemens and others
Posted on March 24, 2008The San Francisco Chronicle has this interesting article about the start of a nother notable steroid-perjury trial in federal court. As detailed in this excerpt, the trial has a lot of impact on various sentencing issues: Caught up in the...
More evidence localities love to hate sex offenders
Posted on March 24, 2008This local story from California, headlined "Cities modify Jessica's Law even as court mulls validity," highlights that localities get a kick out of kicking sex offenders when they are down. Here are excerpts from the article: As the state Supreme...
SCOTUS takes new gun case ... is this a Heller tea leaf?
Posted on March 24, 2008I am sure regular readers are tired of me linking the Heller Second Amendment case to various sentencing issues, but a new Supreme Court cert. grant today is only going to fuel my gun fires. Here are the basics from...
Major First Circuit ruling on post-Booker realities
Posted on March 24, 2008Thanks to AL&P, you can read a full summary here of the First Circuit's important post-Booker work from last Friday in US v. Martin, No. 06-1983 (1st Cir. Mar. 21, 2008) (available here). Because I'm wrapped up with grading these...
A high-profile (and suspect?) sentencing computation "error"
Posted on March 23, 2008As detailed in this Los Angeles Times piece, a high-profile California case now involves an interesting new back-end sentencing twist: California authorities rearrested Sara Jane Olson at noon Saturday, just hours after she was prevented from flying home to Minnesota...
An interesting historical perspective on Second Amendment rights
Posted on March 23, 2008As we await a ruling from the Supreme Court in the Heller Second Amendment case, I hope to showcase articles and commentary that provide a distinct perspective on the issues surrounding individual gun rights. A great example of such commentary...
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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?
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