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: Who decides
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As perhaps my last substantive post for the semester, I will reinforce out common "who sentences" theme by asking whether anyone has any special thoughts concerning who Joe Biden should pick to serve as US Attorney General. I probably would not assert that the US Attorney General is the most important "who" when it comes…
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After our first few weeks of class discussing theories of punishment, you likely recall that we never reached any kind of firm conclusive resolution as to what goals a sentencing system must or should pursue. For that reason (and others), it should not be a surprise that there is no firm conclusive view of what…
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I hope everyone enjoyed as much as I did the Zoom visit today by US District Judge Douglas R. Cole (SD Ohio) and US District Judge Robert W. Pratt (SD Iowa). This post provides an opportunity to share comments and reactions to what we heard.
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As we continue digging into the challenging and dynamic topics of offender characteristics at sentencing, I urge you to think about what offender characteristics should or must always be considered at federal sentencing with two particular "whos" in mind: the US Sentencing Commission and US District Judges. The challenge for the USSC You should closely review…
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Amidst all the recent uncertainty and angst, I wanted to be certain to remind everyone about our class plans for the rest of November: Tuesday, Nov 10: Guest lecture via Zoom by Jonathan Wroblewski, Director of the Office of Policy and Legislation in the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice. (No in-person class,…
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As we wrapped up a too-quick discussion of the "offense" for sentencing purposes with a focus on drug cases, I briefly mentioned the somewhat (in)famous litigation in Chicago surrounding so-called "stash-house sting" case. I have done a series of blog posts about these cases at my main blog, some of which are linked below. Here…
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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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CLASS LOGISTICS REMINDER: On Nov 3, we will have an election day optional on-line Zoom class; I'll be on Zoom at the usual time for an unstructured discussion of how the 2020 election could impact sentencing matters (some noted here); on Nov 5, we will have an in-person regular class (perhaps about election results and) finishing…
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To start the final week of October, we will turn to discuss the (insufficiently discussed) Supreme Court ruling in US v. Watts upholding the constitutionality of the use of so-called "acquitted conduct" in the calculation of the sentencing guidelines. I would like us in class (and here in the comments) to explore just what "acquitted…
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I am hopeful that all the videos of all the speakers and panels from last week's NACDL conference, Prison Brake: Rethinking the Sentencing Status Quo, will be available on-line before too long. In the meantime, any and all students who would like to "earn" some more class time credits should consider checking out some slightly…
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The FIRST STEP Act, which is fully titled the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, was signed by Prez Trump into law on Dec. 21, 2018. Many have rightly called this law the biggest federal criminal justice reform legislation in a generation, and yet others have rightly called this law a…
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In this post from last month, back when we were focused on "whos," I highlighted some data on mandatory minimums in the federal sentencing system. Back then, we were talking somewhat generally about how prosecutors garner sentencing power from mandatory minimum sentencing statutes. Now that we are working through the sentencing of Rob Anon, we…
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As stressed in class, much of the rest of the semester is going to explore non-capital (and mostly federal) sentencing policies and practice before and after modern guideline reforms. Our work will start and advance through a deep discussion of sentencing realities faced in sentencing Rob Anon — whose crime and history appear in short form at…
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After a final review of what we should take away from the McClesky ruling and our discussion of a possible legislative response, we will turn for our last week of death penalty discussion to the Supreme Court's Eighth Amendment jurisprudence placing categorical limits on what crimes cannot result in a capital sentence and what criminals…
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As I mentioned in class, we can only briefly touch on so many interesting big and little issues relating to the death penalty in class that I would eagerly give more time and attention in this forum. Absent suggestions, I will share (and enhance) items from my inbox of interest. Today, this involves this great…
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I reviewed a lot of SCOTUS jurisprudence (too) quickly in class today, and I will be eager to talk about all the who, why and how in cases like Blakely and Booker and others as folks see fit. But, especially because of their enduring importance in modern debates about sentencing policy and practice, I also…
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As briefly mentioned in class, there have been waves of "victims' rights" movements that have sought to ensure crime victims have a more prominent role in the criminal justice process. The latest wave has come in the form of a ballot initiative known as Marsy's Law, which has been approved by voters in 14 states. …
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As I mentioned briefly in class, and as will be useful as we turn to some famous and consequential Supreme Court rulings, I am eager for you to start giving thought to whether the text or spirit of the US Constitution favors or prioritizes any particular theory of punishment or any particular "whos" in a…
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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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One idea worth consideration as we explore theories of punishment is whether prison, which is our modern default punishment for all serious offenses, is really any good at advancing any of the traditional theoretical goals. When pressed on this front, advocates of prison and modern mass incarceration often claim that prison is at least good…
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Our last class of general discussion (before we turn to student presentations) will focus on the ground-breaking and controversial clemency activity during the final years of the Obama Administration. I handed out in class last week this basic web review of the initiative as described by the US Department of Justice. Among many topics I…
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Though you are soon to turn to conducting research and preparing your presentation/papers, I am here going to be recommending additional reading for background information to advance our on-going class discussions. Specifically, there are two sets of readings that were on the syllabus that I want to provide here (and I may print out and…
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In last week's class we briefly discussed some of the federal clemency efforts for those who dodged the draft during the Vietnam war. Excitingly, right after our class, the folks at Vox posted an on-point article/podcast under the headline, "A plan to reverse the war on drugs, from the Vietnam War era: What Democrats running…
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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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I have now officially printed out all the class submission, and I am reasonably far along at ready what all you folks had to say in mini- and final papers. I wanted to use this space not only to say thanks again for a great semester, but also to encourage staying in touch (especially if…
Sentencing Class @ OSU Moritz College of Law 