Law Commons^™

Sentencing Trends For Economic Crime, Robert Sanger

Robert M. Sanger

Economic crime is something that intersects with the work of many practitioners, whether corporate counsel, business lawyers, civil litigators, estate planners, or family lawyers. As many know, the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“Guidelines”) have treated economic crimes with stiff guideline sentences. When the amount of intended loss rises, the sentences accelerate to the level of being extremely harsh. The United States Sentencing Commission has just published the results of their study of sentencing for economic crimes as applied in practice.The Guidelines have been declared to be advisory by the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. …

The Quest For Finality: Five Stories Of White Collar Criminal Prosecution, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

In this symposium article, Professor Dervan examines the issue of finality and sentencing. In considering this issue, he argues that prosecutors, defendants, and society as a whole are drawn to the concept of finality in various ways during criminal adjudications. Further, far from an aspirational summit, he argues that some outgrowths of this quest for finality could be destructive and, in fact, obstructive to some of the larger goals of our criminal justice system, including the pursuit of truth and the protection of the innocent.

Given the potential abstraction of these issues, Professor Dervan decided to discuss the possible consequences …

Rate Of False Conviction Of Criminal Defendants Who Are Sentenced To Death, Samuel Gross, Barbara O'Brien, Chen Hu, Edward Kennedy

Edward H. Kennedy

The rate of erroneous conviction of innocent criminal defendants is often described as not merely unknown but unknowable. There is no systematic method to determine the accuracy of a criminal conviction; if there were, these errors would not occur in the first place. As a result, very few false convictions are ever discovered, and those that are discovered are not representative of the group as a whole. In the United States, however, a high proportion of false convictions that do come to light and produce exonerations are concentrated among the tiny minority of cases in which defendants are sentenced to …

New Data And New Questions: Trac's Contribution To Federal Sentencing, Steven Chanenson, Douglas Berman

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Bargained Justice: Plea Bargaining's Innocence Problem And The Brady Safety-Valve, Lucian Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

If any number of attorneys were asked in 2004 whether Lea Fastow’s plea bargain in the Enron case was constitutional, the majority would respond with a simple word – Brady. Yet while the 1970 Supreme Court decision Brady v. United States authorized plea bargaining as a form of American justice, the case also contained a vital caveat that has been largely overlooked by scholars, practitioners, and courts for almost forty years. Brady contains a safety-valve that caps the amount of pressure that may be asserted against defendants by prohibiting prosecutors from offering incentives in return for guilty pleas that are …

Follow The Evidence: Integrate Risk Assessment Into Sentencing, Steven Chanenson, Jordan Hyatt, Maerk Bergstrom

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

The Adventure Continues, Steven Chanenson

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Sentencing Beyond Our Borders, Steven Chanenson

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Shaping Modern Sentencing: Three Giants, Steven Chanenson, Mark Miller

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

The Next Era Of Sentencing Reform ... Revisited, Steven Chanenson, Mark Bergstrom, Frank Dermody, Jordan Hyatt

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Statement Of Steven L. Chanenson Before The United States Sentencing Commission Regarding Retroactivity Of Crack Guidelines Amendments, Steven Chanenson

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Federal Cocaine Sentencing In Transition, Steven Chanenson, Douglas Berman

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Can And Will Information Spur Post-Modern Setencing Reforms?, Steven Chanenson, Douglas Berman

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Plea Bargaining's Survival: Financial Crimes Plea Bargaining, A Continued Triumph In A Post-Enron World, Lucian E. Dervan

Lucian E Dervan

This article examines the war on financial crimes that began after the collapse of Enron in 2001. Although many believed that the reforms implemented following this scandal led to greater prosecutorial focus on financial crimes and longer prison sentences, an analysis of data from 1995 through 2006 reveals that little has actually changed. The statistics demonstrate that the government's focus on financial crimes has not increased and prison sentences for fraud have remained stagnant. How could this be the case? It is this author's hypothesis that although prosecutors could have chosen to use new statutes and amendments to the United …

Perjury Or Subornation Of Perjury; Bribery Of Witness: Model Sentencing Guidelines § 2j1, Steven Chanenson

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Obstruction Of Justice: Model Sentencing Guidelines §2j2, Steven Chanenson

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.

Sentencing And Data: The Not-So-Odd-Couple, Steven Chanenson

Steven L. Chanenson

No abstract provided.