Tag: sentencing guidelines
Posted on Wed Aug 13, 2008 at 06:48:46 PM EST
Tags: sentencing guidelines (all tags)
Senior U.S. District Court Judge John L Kane, Jr. (Colorado) issued a brave sentencing decision today in a child p!rnography case. (Opinion in USA v. Rausch, here.)
In it, Judge Kane examines the purpose of sentencing and punishment, invoking Lord Denning, Dostoyevsky and others.
The defendant was charged with possession of less than 100 child p!rn images. The Sentencing Guidelines called for a sentence of 97 to 120 months. The Government asked for 97 months. [More...]
(21 comments, 918 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments
Posted on Mon Apr 28, 2008 at 06:59:33 PM EST
Tags: sentencing guidelines (all tags)
The Supreme Court today granted cert in a 10th Circuit sentencing guideline case. (Order here, pdf). The case is U.S. v. Garcia-Lara, 499 F.3d 1133 (10th Cir. 2007). It was a terrible decision that held district courts have to find something unusual about the defendant or his case in order to vary from the Guidelines. It's a meth case where the trial court departed below the guidelines to impose 140 months and the 10th Circuit reversed. (See below the fold for facts.)
Not only did the Supreme Court today accept cert on the case, it vacated the opinion and remanded the case for further proceedings in light of Gall v. U.S. The Supreme Court case number is 07-9799.
[Hat tip to the Colorado Federal Defender's office for the information.]
(8 comments, 479 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments
Posted on Mon Dec 10, 2007 at 09:48:21 AM EST
Tags: crack cocaine penalties, sentencing guidelines (all tags)
The Supreme Court today affirmed rulings of two district court judges in cases in which they had granted downward departures from the federal sentencing guidelines. One case involved crack, the other ecstasy.
The cases are Kimbrough v. U.S., 06-6330 (opinion here, pdf) and Gall v. U.S., 06-7949, opinion here (pdf).
In Kimbrough, the Court had imposed a 15 year sentence instead of the 19 to 22 years called for by the guidelines. In Gall, the Court granted probation instead of a 30 to 37 month sentence.
Scotus Blog explains the decisons. Law Prof Doug Berman of Sentencing Law and Policy is very excited and will have a lot of commentary as soon as he's digested the opinions.
Tomorrow, the U.S. Sentencing Commission will announce its decision on whether its recent crack cocaine guideline reduction will be retroactive and thus apply to the 19,500 crack offenders now in federal prison.
Update: Two quotes from Kimbraugh on the difference between mandatory minimums and guidelines and ability of judges to consider the disparity between crack and powder cocaine penalties:(3 comments, 421 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments
Posted on Thu May 31, 2007 at 12:54:16 PM EST
Tags: sentencing guidelines (all tags)
The criminal law world has been awaiting the Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Claiborne and U.S. v. Rita, which address unresolved questions from the Booker case (argued in the Supreme Court by TalkLeft contributor TChris) which ruled the federal sentencing guidelines are no longer mandatory.
The issue in the Claiborne case is whether a sentence below the guideline range must be justified by extraordinary circumstances. Scotus Blog reports:
The case of Claiborne v. U.S. (docket 06-5618) was heard by the Court on Feb. 20, along with a second Guidelines case (Rita v. U.S., 06-5754). The cases were heard in tandem because they both test what sentence under the Guideline may be treated as "reasonable" when challenged on appeal. The Clairborne appeal asks whether a sentence below the Guideline range is presumed to be reasonable, while the Rita case asks whether a sentence within a Guideline range is presumed to be reasonable.
But today the Public Defender's office representing Claiborne confirmed he was shot to death in Saint Louis in recent days.
So what happens to his case?
More...
(4 comments, 441 words in story) There's More :: Permalink :: Comments
