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Full-Text Articles in Law
Empowering The Sentencing Commission: A Different Resolution To The Cocaine Sentencing Drama, Kip D. Nelson
Empowering The Sentencing Commission: A Different Resolution To The Cocaine Sentencing Drama, Kip D. Nelson
Kip D Nelson
No abstract provided.
Empowering The Sentencing Commission: A Different Resolution To The Cocaine Sentencing Drama, Kip D. Nelson
Empowering The Sentencing Commission: A Different Resolution To The Cocaine Sentencing Drama, Kip D. Nelson
Kip D Nelson
No abstract provided.
A Good Time With The Sixth Amendment: The Application Of Apprendi To The Denial Of Good Time Credit, Nicholas J. Xenakis
A Good Time With The Sixth Amendment: The Application Of Apprendi To The Denial Of Good Time Credit, Nicholas J. Xenakis
Nicholas J Xenakis
This Article is about a unique aberration in post-Blakely sentencing jurisprudence. It explains why the Due Process the Sixth Amendment guarantees as articulated in Apprendi v. New Jersey apply to some factual determinations related to the denial of good time credit. At first glance, this is something that should not be. Denials of good time credit are typically evaluated under a ‘some evidence’ standard, and juries normally play no role in such denials since they usually take place post-conviction. Nonetheless, Apprendi does indeed apply to some factual determinations related to the pre-trial behavior of the defendant while incarcerated. In states …
Inter-Judge Sentencing Disparity After Booker: A First Look, Ryan W. Scott
Inter-Judge Sentencing Disparity After Booker: A First Look, Ryan W. Scott
Ryan W. Scott
A central purpose of the Sentencing Reform Act was to reduce inter-judge sentencing disparity, driven not by legitimate differences between offenders and offense conduct, but by the philosophy, politics, or biases of the sentencing judge. The federal Sentencing Guidelines, despite their well-recognized deficiencies, succeeded in reducing that form of unwarranted disparity. But in a series of decisions from 2005 to 2007, the Supreme Court rendered the Guidelines advisory (Booker), set a highly deferential standard for appellate review (Gall), and explicitly authorized judges to reject the policy judgments of the Sentencing Commission (Kimbrough). Since then, the Commission has received extensive anecdotal …
Graham V. Florida: Justice Kennedy's Vision Of Childhood And The Role Of Judges, Tamar R. Birckhead
Graham V. Florida: Justice Kennedy's Vision Of Childhood And The Role Of Judges, Tamar R. Birckhead
Tamar R Birckhead
This short essay examines Graham v. Florida, the United States Supreme Court decision holding that the Eighth Amendment’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause does not permit a juvenile offender to be sentenced to life in prison without parole for a nonhomicide crime. This essay argues that Justice Anthony Kennedy’s majority opinion is grounded not only in Roper v. Simmons, which invalidated the death penalty for juvenile offenders on Eighth Amendment grounds, and Kennedy v. Louisiana, which held that the Eighth Amendment prohibited the death penalty for the offense of rape of a child, but also in Establishment Clause cases set …