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?
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Category: Current Affairs
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With my usual apologies for only scratching the data/metrics surface in class yesterday, I wanted to link here to some of the materials I mentioned and then set up our final discussion giving particular emphasis to the (federal) war on drugs. To start, on the crime front, I flagged graphics in class drawn from this…
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One main goal of our first few weeks of classes is to enable you to be able to analyze and assess in a sophisticated way the theories of punishment and institutional players that formally and functionally have key roles in the operation of our sentencing systems. As I have already started to emphasize and will…
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The title of this post is the title of this webinar that I would highly urge you to attend if you are available. It will take place online Wednesday, September 2, 2020, from 2-3:00 p.m. ET. You can register here, where you will see this description: Draconian sentencing laws and practices stretch back decades and…
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I will here continue rounding up of some clemency news and commentary from a little Google news searching. Once again, here I will provided the jurisdiction, headline and link: Federal: "Trump’s Super Bowl Commercial Features Alice Johnson Discussing Her Clemency" Florida: "Florida Clemency Panel Gives Felons Path to Regain Vote" Louisiana: "Will Gov. John Bel…
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This recent USA Today article, headlined "'Undoing a mistake': Ken Burns film looks inside the push to bring college education back to prison," provides some important backstory on a notable new documentary about a notable prison education program in New York. I suspect the full documentary with be worth watching/streaming, and I think just the preview…
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In this post earlier this month, I flagged a number of "who sentences" stories relating to the death penalty on my Sentencing Law & Policy blog. Here is now a similar round up of some recent non-capital sentencing stories and commentaries that provide some more "who" perspectives: GOP Gov explains how sentencing reform has "Georgia's…
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Though I am eager to start migrating our class discussions away from capital sentencing and punishment to non-capital sentencing and punishments, the notable death penalty news keeps coming. Specifically, check out these two recent posts from my main blog: Philadelphia DA sues Pennsylvania Gov asserting execution moratorium is "lawless" and "flagrantly unconstitutional" New Oregon Gov pledges…
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As mentioned in class, this week and next our class discussions will migrate from the basics of modern capital sentencing to the basics of modern non-capital sentencing. And, as the Coker and Kennedy cases highlight, all modern capital cases now involve only the crime of murder even though any number of sex offenses often lead legislatures…
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As reported fully here and here via my main blog, after Bridezilla Jordan Graham failed in her effort to withdraw her plea based on prosecutors' sentencing arguments, she was sentenced to 365 months in federal prison for having pushed her new husband off a cliff. (Notably, the district judge at sentencing cited Graham's apparently lack…
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The issue presented to the Supreme Court in Hall v. Florida is "Whether the Florida scheme for identifying mentally retarded defendants in capital cases violates Atkins v. Virginia." Here are the top-side briefs: Brief of petitioner Freddie Lee Hall Motion for leave to file amici brief filed by Professors Adam Lamparello and Charles MacLean in…
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I am intrigued to have learned right after class that Washington Governor Jay Inslee decided to take his state's death penalty into his own hands today by declaring a moratorium on executions while he serves as Governor. I have blogged about this notable decision here at my main blog; and these comments from Governor Inslee’s remarks announcing his…
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Williams? McGautha? Furman? Tsarnaev? The principal goal of our pre-sentencing conversation about the Williams case on Wednesday was to shake everyone away from the (incomplete) view that a trial judge imposing a sentence is the most responsible (or even most important) decision-maker in the sentencing process. A sentencing judge (or, in some cases, a…
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I made reference to a lot of current events stories to follow at the start of class, in part because the development of these stories highlight how many distinct and distinctive "who"s play a role in criminal justice reforms and ultimately in the operation of modern sentencing systems. For example, the NFL can have a…
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As perhaps is already clear from our first full week of discussion, issues of race and class are necessarily important concerns when we consider the law, policy and practices of modern sentencing systems. In part because of that reality, I have often through the years emphasized a number of MLK-inspired themes on my main sentencing…
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I talk about some of the issues discussed in class concerning the upcoming sentencing on my main blog in this post, and here is a link to the government's sentencing memo in US v. Blagojevich. I continue to look for an on-line version of the defense filing (and will give extra credit to any student who…
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As a few folks have already noted in comments to a prior post and as this lengthy Atlanta Journal-Constitution article reports, this morning the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles declined to commute the death sentence of Troy Anthony Davis. A couple quick thoughts and questions to set up a discussion here (and perhaps also…
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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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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…
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law 