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A great letter urging the USSC to think big in its future work

By Douglas A. Berman

I had the great pleasure of receiving from one of my old bosses, Judge Jon O. Newman of the Second Circuit, a copy of a brief letter he sent a few months ago to USSC Chair Judge Ricardo Hinojosa.  With permission, I have posted the letter below and here is the heart of its pitch: I write to suggest that the Sentencing Commission begin in the very near future to plan for a major reconsideration of the Sentencing Guidelines to mark the 25th anniversary of the Guidelines, which will occur in 2012. I have in mind a thorough reexamination of the principles, theories, and premises that underlay the original set of Guidelines and that have been virtually unchanged ever since. Understandably, the Commission has been preoccupied with a series of hundreds of amendments, dealing with new statutes and refinements to existing Guidelines...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 22, 2009 (boomark / email).