Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law
A new home for an old class blog
recent posts
- Anyone have any distinct views on who Joe Biden should pick as US Attorney General?
- What data in the federal system would indicate the Biden Administration is drawing down the federal drug war?
- A final (too brief) foray into what metrics and data matter for assessing a sentencing system
- Reactions to our look behind the robes with federal sentencing judges?
- Are there any “offender characteristics” that you think must be considered at sentencing? If so, how?
about
Category: Class activities
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Intriguingly, there has been a good bit of Ohio sentencing and punishment coverage in the Columbus Dispatch during our break this week, and I have linked some of the biggest stories via this post on my main blog. In addition, I encourage everyone interesting in Ohio non-capital sentencing law and policy to look around the…
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As I mentioned last week in class, I am eager to receive any and all student feedback on the writing assignment I gave you for the first part of the semester. I trust no one found it too burdensome (though you should tell me if you did), and I am especially hopeful some will report…
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As I mentioned in class, I am eager during the break to hear any and all feedback on the ways in which I have so far used this blog space to supplement/enhance class experiences and discussion. In the second half of the semester, I could: blog a lot more (or perhaps even less) provide more links to blogs/articles/cases we…
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As I mentioned in class on Tuesday, we will formally conclude our extended examination into the exercise and regulation of death penalty sentencing discretion on Thursday. In that class hour, I will ask some general and some specific questions about what we think about the law's modern efforts and (lack of?) success in regulating capital…
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As the casebook highlights, Kentucky in 1998 enacted the first statutory response to the McClesky ruling through its Kentucky Racial Justice Act. And just two years ago, North Carolina followed suit through the enactment of the North Carolina Racial Justice Act. There has not been much litigation over the Kentucky RJA because that legislation was expressly made…
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To give you a focus for examining modern death penalty statutes, the casebook encourages thinking about how you might help represent Ted Kaczynski if he were to be prosecuted under the applicable death penalty statutes in Texas and Florida. Though not in the text, you should also consider how you think Ted might fare under…
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I suggested in class some time ago that you should read (and re-read) Furman thinking about which of the nine Justices' opinions you would have been most likely to join (assuming you had been a hypothetical additional Justice in 1972 and could only join an opinion rather than write your own). Because I suspect we will not…
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As you all should know, every student is required to submit a short paper (of no more than 5 pages) before Fall Break concerning a topic of sentencing law, policy or practice that you believe is under-reported and/or under-researched and/or under-litigated. I emphasize the "you" in this post because I want and expect this first paper…
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Welcome to the THIRD re-launch of this blogging adventure. This blog started over four years ago (with the uninspired title of Death Penalty Course @ Moritz College of Law) to facilitate student engagement in the Spring 2007 course on the death penalty that I taught at OSU's Moritz College of Law. Though I closed this blog down not long after that course ended,…
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Though this blog space has not been especially active through the semester, I wanted to do a (last?) post to share some concluding thoughts: 1. I first wanted to say thanks to all of you for taking a chance by signing up for a seminar with a visiting professor, and also for sticking with the class after…
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As mentioned in class last week, our last Wednesday together this semester is packed full of exciting activities. As mentioned before, I have arranged for US District Judge John Gleeson to come speak with our class, and we are meeting at for breakfast an hour before our class time at the diner on 10th Avenue. Students are…
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I have arranged for US District Judge John Gleeson to come speak with our class on our final day together (next week, April 28), which means this coming week is essentially our last opportunity to cover formally in class any topic or topics that you are especially eager to discuss. For that reason, I hope students…
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Though not always called a white-paper, all the of documents linked below are examples of the kinds of policy documents I have in mind for the final class paper: New ACS issue brief on felon disenfranchisement New ACS paper on racial disparities in the death penalty New ACS issue brief making the case against juve…
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can and should get started in the comments to this post. And, upon request (or based on my own assessment of which comments merit added attention), specific comments can and will be transposed into a new post (which in turn can and should enable continued and more focused commentary). Most essentially, everyone is urged to…
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Though I am prepared and eager to discuss whichever offense conduct and offender characteristics that students find most interesting as sentencing factors, there are a few factors that I want to give special attention in our class on March 10. Specifically, in class I will be especially eager to hear your thoughts on these potential sentencing factors:…
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As mentioned in class, I have reschedled the snow-postoned invitation to speak with the Federal Defenders of New York, Inc downtown for the afternoon of Wednesday, March 24. As before, I think the Defenders can host up to five students along with me, so please indicate in the comments if you would like to come to what should be an informative…
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There are too many stories that surround the concept of acquitted conduct to cover them all, but I wanted to provide some links to some of these stories as recently covered in my main blog for anyone interested in continuing to think about these issues of what offense conduct can/should be considered at sentencing. Here are just a…
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I have heard great reports about the class this past week from our two kind guest lecturers. When we (finally!) get the chance to reconnect this coming Wednesday, I would be happy and eager to provide any kind of direct follow-up to what you covered this past week (and students are encouraged to use the this post…
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During our (cancelled) class on Feb. 10, I was planning to review the basics of federal sentencing law as a prelude to our two pracitioner guests who will be taking over the class on Feb. 17, 2010, when I have to head out of town to participate this symposium about federal sentencing law. Obviously, snow got in the way of my plans. But…
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Though snow has apparently shut down schools for Wednesday, I am still planning to head to the Federal Defenders in the early afternoon (if they will still have me). Students remain welcome to join me, though I expect I will plan another similar field trip later in the semester so that everyone can enjoy the experience…
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As I mentioned in class, I have been invited to speak with the Federal Defenders of New York, Inc downtown on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 10, and I can bring up to five students along. Please indicate in the comments if you would like to come to what should be an informative and fun…
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A quick weekend post to say sorry for hogging up all the air-space in last week's class as I provided a (too lengthy) "who sentences" overview of some of the ideas and themes in Chapter 2. This coming week, I promise that our class on Jan. 27 will be much more dialogue than lecture, especially…
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I mentioned in class that I know folks in and around NYC with lots of different kinds of experiences with state and federal sentencing systems. I am happy and eager to invite these folks to our class to be guest speakers, and I also would like to arrange some field trips to watch, for example,…
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Welcome to the SECOND re-launch of a this blogging adventure. This blog started two years ago, with the uninspired title of Death Penalty Course @ Moritz College of Law, to facilitate student engagement in the Spring 2007 course on the death penalty that I taught at OSU's Moritz College of Law. Though I closed this blog down not long after…
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This updated Houston Chronicle piece provides an early report on the outcome of a sentence case that we spent lots of time with in class. Especially since students surely have lots of other matters to deal with this week, anyone who finds the time and the energy to discuss this outcome will be rewarded with extra…
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law 