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: Recent news and developments
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I may try to make a habit, perhaps consistently on the weekends, to provide a brief round-up of some of the week’s clemency news and commentary. My Google news feed might not justify this round-up every week, but this morning these pieces very much seemed worth spotlighting, and I have below provided the jurisdiction, headline…
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As we continue to discuss offender characteristics at sentencing, we have two notable new current events to add to the discussion: A. The US Supreme Court added another criminal history/ACCA case to its docket this afternoon. Here via this post at SCOTUSblog is a link to the briefing and a brief description: In Walker v.…
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I had no idea during our discussion on Wednesday of federal sentencing ranges for child pornography offenses that there would be a high-profile arrest in our own neighborhood on state charges involving this behavior just the next day. This local article, headlined "Ohio TV station's chief meteorologist charged with child pornography," provides these details (with…
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We discussed in class today some of the dynamics sure to surround a possible capital prosecution of Quentin Smith, the suspect charged with killing two Westerville police officers over the weekend. Against that backdrop, I found notable this new local article headlined "The death penalty: Is it cheaper? Why does it take so long from sentencing…
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I hope everyone enjoyed Spring Break as much as I did and also that everyone is looking forward to an exciting final month of our sentencing class. This post provides a couple of reminders about on-going activities as well as some updates that might be of interest as we close out March sentencing madness: 1. Everyone…
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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 briefly mentioned in in class earlier this week, you can have still more sentencing fun in the coming days during the lunch hour. Here are the details: April 17 at 1pm: Federalist Society Teleforum Conference Call involving Profs Berman and Cassell on "Controversial Sentencing in the Antwuan Ball Case" April 18 at 12noon in Drinko Room…
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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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A couple more students got me some more "top-flight" guest-post material in time to get a little credit for the effort. I will post the entries periodically, and start with this sports-related sentencing post for all those who have (like me) already spent a little too much time watching football since classes ended: It’s no…
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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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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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I apologize for taking up (too?) much of class on Wednesday telling the war story of my very first real legal experience after law school (but perhaps a real-world war story about a non-capital case was a useful break from what we have been doing lately). If you want to read the Second Circuit's opinion in United States…
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Especially as we are unpacking the past and present reality of who imposes death sentences, a new analysis of the death penalty and plea bargaining realities merits our collective attention. The analysis appears in this new working paper, titled "The Death Penalty and Plea Bargaining to Life Sentences." I discuss the report (and link to other notable posts…
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Death penalty news and developments continue apace even between our class meetings. For example, as detailed here, on Friday the Supreme Court granted review in a case presenting "a test of federal courts’ authority to overturn a state trial judge’s decision to remove a juror from a capital trial because of that juror’s views about…
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law 