Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law

To make sure all is clear about the final paper/assignment, let me go over my latest thinking on how you all can wrap up your work for this course:

1.  At our last class this Thursday (Dec. 8), I will have available copies of the "directed final paper" option that student may complete as their final paper/assignment for the class.  (As of this writing, I am planning for this "directed final paper" to have 5 questions, but students will only have to select and respond to three of these questions to complete the assignment and each question will have a 1500-word limit for answers.)  These final papers will be due on the last day of exams, December 21.

2.  Students committed to doing an amicus brief for the SCOTUS juvenile LWOP cases should be making progress on their brief plans/contents ASAP.  Though the briefs may not be due to the Supreme Court until after the end of the exam period, I am going to expect students to have a reasonable working draft to submit by the last day of exams, December 21, so that I know serious work is afoot.

3.  Instead of routes 1 or 2 above explaing above, students can do a "substantial" final paper or project of some other variety on a sentencing topic of their choosing.  My working definition of "substantial" is something in the neighborhood of 20-25 pages of written product if in the form of a traditional research report or advocacy "white paper."  But if the project is to take some other form (e.g., field-work research or other innovate and time-consuming activities), students are advised to keep a record of hours invested on the project through an informal "billing sheet" so that I can be confident that the product is the result of some "substantial" efforts.  Absent special needs and special approval, these sorts of final papers will also be due on the last day of exams, December 21.

Any questions?