The title of this post is the title of this essay authored by Douglas Husak recently posted to SSRN. Here is its abstract: I present the following challenge to retributivists (including myself). I stipulate that retributivism is the claim that...
Douglas A. Berman
Purposes of Punishment and Sentencing
The US Supreme Court's new season, known as October Term 2024, officially gets started on Monday with oral arguments in two cases raising technical procedural issues. But, for SCOTUS watchers, today feels like openning day because the Justices this morning...
Douglas A. Berman
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Who Sentences
Inquest has this notable new essay on a topic that I think merits a lot more attention, namely on the needs of the incarcerated for legal assistance. The piece, authored by Jennifer Soble, is headlined "Lawyerless No More: Once a...
Douglas A. Berman
Prisons and prisoners
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
As reported in this new NBC News piece, "Prosecutors in California are reviewing the convictions of the Menendez brothers, who were found guilty in the 1989 killing of their parents, to determine whether they should be resentenced and potentially released,...
Douglas A. Berman
Celebrity sentencings
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
The title of this post is the title of this new paper authored by Gregory Brazeal now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract: Criticisms of American mass incarceration have generally focused on urban areas, and especially large, racially segregated...
Douglas A. Berman
Race, Class, and Gender
Scope of Imprisonment
The most significant sentencing-related ballot initiative in the 2024 election cycle is California’s Proposition 36, titled "Drug and Theft Crime Penalties and Treatment-Mandated Felonies Initiative." This initiaitive is summarized by Ballotpedia this way: A "yes" vote supports making changes to...
Douglas A. Berman
Campaign 2024 and sentencing issues
Drug Offense Sentencing
Elections and sentencing issues in political debates
Who Sentences
As detailed in this local article, in the past week a "federal judge in Detroit has ruled parts of Michigan’s Sex Offenders Registration Act are unconstitutional." (Disclosure: I have worked with a group of law professors on amicus briefing in...
Douglas A. Berman
Collateral consequences
Criminal Sentences Alternatives
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Sentences Reconsidered
Sex Offender Sentencing
Who Sentences
The title of this post is the title of this new essay available via SSRN and authored by Ian Ayres and Fredrick Vars. Here is its abstract: Lower federal courts are struggling to determine the constitutionality of longstanding federal laws...
Douglas A. Berman
Offender Characteristics
Second Amendment issues
Who Sentences
To close out September, the US Sentencing Commission released yet another new set of its terrific "Quick Facts" publications. Regular readers are now used to my praise for the USSC's production of these convenient and informative short data documents, which...
Douglas A. Berman
Data on sentencing
Detailed sentencing data
Federal Sentencing Guidelines
As reported in this AP article, a "Texas man convicted of fatally stabbing twin 16-year-old girls more than three decades ago was executed on Tuesday evening." Here is more: Garcia Glenn White was pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m. CDT following...
Douglas A. Berman
Baze and Glossip lethal injection cases
Death Penalty Reforms
In recent weeks, I have noticed and blogged about a number of notable recent sentencing stories involving aninals (see links to prior posts below). This local story out of Montana, headlined "Vaughn man who cloned, bred and sold illegal sheep...
Douglas A. Berman
Offender Characteristics
Offense Characteristics
This brief press release, titled "FBI Releases 2024 Quarterly Crime Report and Use-of-Force Data Update," reports on the FBI's latest data on crime. Here is how it starts: On Monday, September 30, 2024, the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program...
Douglas A. Berman
National and State Crime Data
The title of this post is the title of this book chapter that I just noticed on SSRN and authored by Emily Greberman and Colleen Berryessa. Here is its abstract: The United States (U.S.) and its criminal-legal system have had...
Douglas A. Berman
Drug Offense Sentencing
A helpful colleague made sure I did not miss an interesting new opinion from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Commonwealth v. Berry, No. 16 EAP 2023, J-9A-2024 (Pa. Sept. 26, 2024) (available here). Here is how the unanimous 24-page ruling...
Douglas A. Berman
Offender Characteristics
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
I have noted before that I thought then-candidate Donald Trump's decision in May 2016 to release a "short list" of people he would consider as potential Supreme Court appointments was a clever and consequential campaign strategy. Such short lists also...
Douglas A. Berman
Campaign 2024 and sentencing issues
Criminal justice in the Trump Administration
Who Sentences
In this post a couple of years ago, I flagged the historical and statistical reality that it is likely that, among any significant cohort of clemency recipients, some number are to face some future legal difficulties. I made the point...
Douglas A. Berman
Clemency and Pardons
Who Sentences
The highest-profile corrections stories of this week were surely the four executions in four US states. But, as is always the case in our big nation with lots of prisons and jails, there were also lots of lower-profile incarceration stories...
Douglas A. Berman
Prisons and prisoners
As noted in this post, on Tuesday of this week, Missouri and Texas completed executions of condemned murderers. Today, it was Alabama and Oklahoma carrying out executions. Here are press accounts: From AL.com, "Alabama inmate Alan Miller executed with nitrogen...
Douglas A. Berman
Baze and Glossip lethal injection cases
Death Penalty Reforms
I just saw this week this (new?) website, called "State Constitution Tool." In a brief foray, I have found this resource pretty easy to navigate as a means to find state constitutional provisions related to a particular topic, such as...
Douglas A. Berman
Recommended reading
State Sentencing Guidelines
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