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Thu, 02/13/2025 - 19:20
As reported in this AP piece, a "Florida man convicted of killing a husband and wife at a remote farm in an attack witnessed by the couple’s toddler was put to death Thursday in the state’s first execution of the...
Douglas A. Berman
Baze and Glossip lethal injection cases
Death Penalty Reforms
Thu, 02/13/2025 - 15:39
The title of this post is the title of this paper recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and authored by Christopher Muller and Alexander Roehrkasse. Here is its abstract: Using administrative and survey data, we show...
Douglas A. Berman
Data on sentencing
Prisons and prisoners
Race, Class, and Gender
Scope of Imprisonment
Thu, 02/13/2025 - 14:19
The question in the title of this post is prompted by this lengthy Chicago Tribune article reporting on the results of a lengthy trial and jury deliberation under the headline "No sweep for either side, but Madigan jury’s split verdict...
Douglas A. Berman
Offender Characteristics
Offense Characteristics
Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing
White-collar sentencing
Wed, 02/12/2025 - 20:29
The title of this post is the title of this new talk/paper authored by Paul Cassell available now via SSRN. Here is its abstract: This article, which serves as the keynote address for the 2025 University of Pacific Law Review...
Douglas A. Berman
Victims' Rights At Sentencing
Who Sentences
Wed, 02/12/2025 - 11:09
A helpful lawyer made sure I saw this week's important new ruling by a Third Circuit panel in Pitsilides v. Barr, No. 21-3320 (3d Cir. Feb. 10, 2025) (available here). I highly recommend the Pitsilides ruling in full, especially because...
Douglas A. Berman
Gun policy and sentencing
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Second Amendment issues
Tue, 02/11/2025 - 22:45
I flagged in this post last week that on February 12 the US Sentencing Commission was to be conducting a public hearing "to receive testimony from invited witnesses on proposed amendments relating to the career offender guideline, firearms offenses, simplification,...
Douglas A. Berman
Tue, 02/11/2025 - 21:57
The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by Rachel Barkow just posted to SSRN. Here is its abstract: Constitutional law is typically conceived as a set of individual rights and a list of powers...
Douglas A. Berman
Offense Characteristics
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Who Sentences
Tue, 02/11/2025 - 14:33
I recently came acrosss a series of short policy papers released last month by the think tank R Street Institute to provide suggestions regarding a "public safety agenda" for various government entities. Here are links to the four papers in...
Douglas A. Berman
Who Sentences
Tue, 02/11/2025 - 10:44
As reported in this AP piece, "President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, whose 14-year sentence for political corruption charges he commuted during his first term." Here is more: The Republican president called the Democratic former...
Douglas A. Berman
Clemency and Pardons
Criminal justice in the Trump Administration
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
Mon, 02/10/2025 - 21:06
As reported in this local article, "Louisiana has approved a protocol for executions by nitrogen hypoxia, which will allow death sentences to be carried out again after nearly 15 years, Gov. Jeff Landry said Monday." Here is more: Louisiana has...
Douglas A. Berman
Baze and Glossip lethal injection cases
Death Penalty Reforms
Who Sentences
Mon, 02/10/2025 - 21:01
As reported in this New York Times piece, the "chief judge of New York State’s highest court urged the State Legislature on Monday to pass a bill that would allow prisoners who have been locked up for years to apply...
Douglas A. Berman
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
Mon, 02/10/2025 - 13:27
The question in the title of this post is prompted in part by this recent Executive Order from Prez Trump titled "Protecting Second Amendment Rights." Among its notable provisions, this EO directs Attorney General Bondi to review, inter alia, "positions...
Douglas A. Berman
Mon, 02/10/2025 - 10:26
The title of this post is the title of this new article appearing in the March 2025 article of the Journal of Empiral Legal Studies and authored by Gabriele Paolini, Elena Kantorowicz-Reznichenko and Stefan Voigt. Here is its abstract: Over...
Douglas A. Berman
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Sentencing around the world
Sat, 02/08/2025 - 17:19
It has been some time since I have highlighted essays from Inquest, "a decarceral brainstorm," but I recently noticed a number of newer pieces that sentencing fans may want to check out: By Carol Steiker, "Almost Anti–Death Penalty: Biden’s incomplete...
Douglas A. Berman
Recommended reading
Who Sentences
Sat, 02/08/2025 - 14:04
Writing for the Pew Research Center, John Gramlich's has this new updated piece that provides an overview of Prez Biden's clemency record and how it compares to prior presidents. The article is headlined "Biden granted more acts of clemency than...
Douglas A. Berman
Clemency and Pardons
Criminal justice in the Biden Administration
Data on sentencing
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 17:41
As reported in this AP article, "racial bias tainted the decision to strike Black people from the jury pool and to impose the death penalty in the 2009 trial of a Black man in North Carolina, a judge ruled on...
Douglas A. Berman
Death Penalty Reforms
Offender Characteristics
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Race, Class, and Gender
Sentences Reconsidered
Fri, 02/07/2025 - 12:30
In this post a few weeks ago, titled "You be the umpire: what sentence for Shohei Ohtani’s ex-interpreter?," I inquired what folks thought should be the federal sentence for Ippei Mizuhara, the former interpreter for LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani...
Douglas A. Berman
Celebrity sentencings
Federal Sentencing Guidelines
White-collar sentencing
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 23:01
As reported in this local article, "Alabama Death Row inmate was executed tonight for the 1991 slaying of a woman in her Birmingham apartment, who he admitted killing after he got tired of hearing her beg for her life." Here...
Douglas A. Berman
Baze and Glossip lethal injection cases
Death Penalty Reforms
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 16:52
Via email, I received word from the US Sentencing Commission about new activities and resources associated with its many notable new guideline amendment proposals. Here are excerpt from the email with links to the USSC's webpage with more details: NOTICE...
Douglas A. Berman
Federal Sentencing Guidelines
Who Sentences
Thu, 02/06/2025 - 14:08
A helpful reader made sure I saw a lengthy new opinion issued today addressing the US Sentencing Commission's sentence reduction guideline, § 1B1.13(b), and particularly its provision that a "change in the law" can sometimes provide a basis for a...
Douglas A. Berman
FIRST STEP Act and its implementation
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
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