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: SCOTUS cases of note
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I found as a useful distraction the morning of 2020 Election Day listening to the oral argument in Jones v. Mississippi, 18-1259. All the Justices had lots of interesting and hard questions concerning the issue of whether the Eighth Amendment requires a sentencer to make a finding that a juvenile is permanently incorrigible before imposing a…
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As I mentioned in class today, I think the case of Jones v. Mississippi presents an important opportunity for the Supreme Court, and especially the newer Justices, to address the application of the Eighth Amendment to juvenile murders. Here is the official question presented: Whether the Eighth Amendment requires the sentencing authority to make a finding…
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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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are worth checking out if you are eager to think deeply about the future of Eighth Amendment limitations on extreme prison sentences. And here are links to the original SCOTUS slip opinions: Graham v. Florida (2010) (all 84-fun-loving-PDF-pages) Miller v. Alabama (2012) (all 62-fun-loving-PDF-pages)
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Students should recall the class-preview post in which I noted two notable on-going cases concerning the Supreme Court's modern Eighth Amendment jurisprudence limiting the imposition of life without parole sentences on juvenile offenders. The end of last week and this coming week involve developments on this front: Late last week, as reported in this post from…
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As mention in class, I am working on an amicus brief in support of a petition for certiorari in Young v. United States. I just received a copy of the petition, which was filed today, and the petition's appendix includes a copy of the Sixth Circuit opinion which rejected the defendant's assertion that a 15-year…
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In this post from my main blog, titled "As a matter of law, policy and practice, what should be the 'offense' a sentencer considers?," I set out some ideas that I referenced in last Wednesday's class and that I am eager to review during our two classes this coming last full week of March. (Remember,…
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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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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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I continue to enjoy and learn from reading and re-reading the seven juve LWOP amicus brief efforts sent my way. And the more I think about what might be most useful to say to the Court, the more I am finding myself drawn to the idea that the mandatory nature of the LWOP sentences in Jackson…
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Big sentencing news from the Supreme Court today, as reported in this blog post at SL&P: "Supreme Court grants cert on two Eighth Amendment LWOP challenges for 14-year-old murderers!" These cases now on the Supreme Court's agenda are Miller v. Alabama and Jackson v. Hobbs (which comes from Arkansas). I will discuss these two new SCOTUS cases briefly in…
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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 may recall, we discussed the case and potential sentencing fate of "Tommy Johnson" in our first seminar session this semester. Today, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the real defendant, Curtis Johnson, on whom our case facts were based. I encourage everyone to read the (relatively short) SCOTUS ruling in Johnson, which is…
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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 mentioned in class that the supplemental problem involving Tommy Johnson is based on a real case now pending before the US Supreme Court. The case is Johnson v. US, and this webpage at SCOTUSwiki provides lots of background on the technical legal issue in Johnson that is currently before the Supreme Court. That page…
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law 