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No Change In Sight For Sentencing Guidelines, Wes R. Porter
No Change In Sight For Sentencing Guidelines, Wes R. Porter
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In the post-Booker era, the commission must reinvent itself to provide a useful tool for the courts in determining punishment, explains Wes Reber Porter of Golden Gate University School of Law.
Confrontation Clause Again Before High Court, Robert K. Calhoun
Confrontation Clause Again Before High Court, Robert K. Calhoun
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This past term, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the latest in a series of confrontation clause cases that began in 2004 with Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36. In Bullcoming v. New Mexico, 11 C.D.O.S. 7706, the court held that the confrontation clause does not permit the government to introduce a forensic lab report in a criminal trial through the in-court testimony of an analyst who did not personally perform or observe the test that formed the basis for the report.
The Pendulum In Federal Sentencing Can Also Swing Toward Predictability: A Renewed Role For Binding Plea Agreements Post-Booker, Wes R. Porter
The Pendulum In Federal Sentencing Can Also Swing Toward Predictability: A Renewed Role For Binding Plea Agreements Post-Booker, Wes R. Porter
Publications
This article argues that in addition to the swing toward increased judicial discretion and overall lower sentences, the pendulum also can swing toward predictability and informed decision making for the defendant. The federal sentencing scheme must allow a defendant to pursue, negotiate, and contract for what the defendant believes is a uniform, proportional, and fair sentence. Increased use of binding plea agreements in federal court could complement the progressive developments following Booker and restore some predictability and informed decision making to federal sentencing. However, without significant rule, policy, and perception changes, like those proposed in Part VI of this article, …
Wrongfully Incarcerated, Randomly Compensated - How To Fund Wrongful-Conviction Compensation Statutes, Deborah M. Mostaghel
Wrongfully Incarcerated, Randomly Compensated - How To Fund Wrongful-Conviction Compensation Statutes, Deborah M. Mostaghel
Publications
It is sadly true that there are people in this country who are sentenced to prison, and even death, for crimes they did not commit. Some have been exonerated and released, largely as the result of innocence projects that have helped prisoners assemble DNA evidence that shows they were not the perpetrators. Some have been exonerated years after they died in prison. Many others are no doubt never exonerated. For a wrongfully convicted person, exoneration is the end of one road but only the beginning of another. Unbelievably, exonerees starting out on the road back to society find that they …