Sentencing Law & Policy

The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by Kevin Morrow and now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract: The final decision on the imposition of the death penalty in the United States is... Douglas A. Berman Death Penalty Reforms Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Who Sentences

The Supreme Court issued this relative short order list this morning which concluded with an interesting dissent from the denial of certiorari authored by Justice Sotomayor and joined by Justice Jackson. Here is how the six-page dissent gets started and... Douglas A. Berman Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Sentences Reconsidered Who Sentences

The title of this post is the title of this notable new article from multiple authors just published in the journal Legal and Criminological Psychology. Here is its abstract: Criminal legal systems around the world rely heavily on defendants foregoing... Douglas A. Berman Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Who Sentences

The title of this post is the headline of this new Washington Post article. I recommend the full piece, and here are excerpts: Standing in front of a crowd outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 6 defendant Brian Mock... Douglas A. Berman Clemency and Pardons Prisons and prisoners Who Sentences

Prez Trump made historic use of his clemency powers during his first few days in office this year, and he clearly continues to enjoy to exercising his broad executive authority to grant pardons and commutations. Consider all this federal clemency... Douglas A. Berman Clemency and Pardons Sentences Reconsidered White-collar sentencing Who Sentences

The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by Benjamin Levin now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract: In this Article, I argue that the U.S. criminal system and debates about criminal justice reform... Douglas A. Berman Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing

The title of this post is the title of this forthcoming book chapter authored by Isabella Polito and Colleen M. Berryessa. Here is its abstract: High rates of recidivism in the age of mass incarceration have prompted efforts for more... Douglas A. Berman Prisons and prisoners Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing Sentences Reconsidered

I am going to be off-line more than usual in the coming days, and so a round-up of some piece catching my eye that I won't have time to cover in distinct posts seems in order. And so: From Bolts,... Douglas A. Berman Recommended reading

The title of this post is the title of this new article now available via SSRN and authored by Bryna Godar. Here is its abstract: Under federal law, states decide whether people lose their voting rights as a result of... Douglas A. Berman Collateral consequences Who Sentences

The Supreme Court this morning decided the so-called "ghost gun" case, Bondi v. Vanderstok, No. 23-852 (March 26, 2025) (available here), which addressed the lawfulnees of an ATF rule interpreting the Gun Control Act of 1968 to cover weapon parts... Douglas A. Berman Offense Characteristics Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Who Sentences

As reported in this local article, "El Paso District Attorney James Montoya campaigned for the job saying he would pursue the death penalty against the 26-year-old gunman who killed 23 people in a local Walmart in 2019 and said he... Douglas A. Berman Death Penalty Reforms Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Who Sentences

As reported in this AP piece, "President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned a former business partner of Hunter Biden who was convicted of participating in a conspiracy to defraud a Native American tribe." Here is more: Devon Archer later became... Douglas A. Berman Celebrity sentencings Clemency and Pardons Sentences Reconsidered Who Sentences

The title of this post is the title of this new article by Clark Neily that serves as the cover story of the latest issue of the Cato Institute's Free Society magazine. Here is how the article begins: The Bill... Douglas A. Berman Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing Who Sentences

Law360 has this lengthy new piece, headlined "La.'s First Nitrogen Execution Reflects Broader Method Shift," which discusses recent state execution method trends. Here are a few excerpts: Louisiana's adoption of the nitrogen gas method is part of a broader shift... Douglas A. Berman Baze and Glossip lethal injection cases Death Penalty Reforms

In the (decidedly non-originalist) opinion in Williams v. New York, 337 U.S. 241 (1949), the Supreme Court rejected arguments that a defendant had a right to confront witnesses whose testimony was used against him by a judge at sentencing. The... Douglas A. Berman Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Sentences Reconsidered Who Sentences

In this post last month, I flagged lots of encouraging data from a number of big cities about homicide trends at the start of 2025. That post cautioned about drawing strong conclusions or having firm expectations based on "early" crime... Douglas A. Berman National and State Crime Data

The title of this post is the title of this notable new article from multiple authors just published in the journal Criminology. Here is its abstract: Based on a 2023 national YouGov survey (N = 800), we explored public support... Douglas A. Berman Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Sentences Reconsidered Who Sentences