This press release from the Buraeu of Prisons earlier this week reports on a notable development inside the BOP. The heading of the press release provides the basics: "Director Marshall Launches FSA Task Force: New Initiative to Tackle Delays, Equip...
Douglas A. Berman
Criminal justice in the Trump Administration
FIRST STEP Act and its implementation
Prisons and prisoners
Who Sentences
As reported in this AP article, on Tuesday of this week, a "man convicted of fatally shooting two people outside a Florida bar in 1993 as part of an attempted revenge killing was executed Tuesday evening, the 26th person put...
Douglas A. Berman
Death Penalty Reforms
Though it is not technically mid-summer, I am on a mid-summer trip that will leave me relatively little time for blogging for the rest of this week. (In addition, when I have some spare time this week, there is a...
Douglas A. Berman
Recommended reading
Recent decades has brought considerable concerns about so-called "school-to-prison" pipelines, a term meant to lament certain educational policies and practices that serve to enhance the prosepcts of some students being caught up in criminal justice systems. But this new Marhsall...
Douglas A. Berman
Death Penalty Reforms
Offender Characteristics
The New York Times has two notable new articles covering the controversies surrounding former Prez Biden's late-term clemencies and compentencies. Here are the pieces: "Biden Says He Made the Clemency Decisions That Were Recorded With Autopen" "Excerpts From The Times’s...
Douglas A. Berman
Clemency and Pardons
Criminal justice in the Biden Administration
Who Sentences
The title of this post is the title of this article authored by Cassia Spohn in the June 2025 issue of the Criminal Law Forum. (As noted in this prior post, this journal issue is devoted to celebrating the work...
Douglas A. Berman
Recommended reading
This New York Times opinion piece, titled "Governors, Use Your Clemency Powers" and authored by Steve Zeidman, focuses on the need for states' chief executives to step up their clemency work. The piece is worth a full read (though it...
Douglas A. Berman
Clemency and Pardons
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
The title of this post is the title of this new article now available via SSRN and authored by Charles Hintz. Here is its abstract: Federal habeas is a mess. The reason is the current doctrine’s myopic proceduralism: its obsession...
Douglas A. Berman
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Sentences Reconsidered
In the latest chapter of a long running saga, a panel of the DC Circuit today upheld the authority of then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to withdraw from plea agreements with three of the 9/11 defendants. The start of the...
Douglas A. Berman
Death Penalty Reforms
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
The title of this post is the title of this new article now available via SSRN authored by Talia Roitberg Harmon, Michael L. Perlin, Maren Geiger, Lea Roitberg and Stacy Bielic. Here is its abstract: The United States Supreme Court...
Douglas A. Berman
Death Penalty Reforms
Offender Characteristics
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
This new ABC News piece reports that the "judge who oversaw the trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs has asked both sides in the case to provide him with sentencing information ahead of the scheduled October sentencing date." Here is more:...
Douglas A. Berman
Celebrity sentencings
Federal Sentencing Guidelines
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
The US Sentencing Commission in recent weeks has released a bunch more of its terrific "Quick Facts" publications. As regular readers know, I find so very interesting all the these short data documents, which are designed to "give readers basic...
Douglas A. Berman
Data on sentencing
Detailed sentencing data
Federal Sentencing Guidelines
I am pleased to see the launch of a new column at SCOTUSblog, being called "ScotusCrim" and being authored by Rory Little to focus "on intersections between the Supreme Court and criminal law." The initial installment is titled "The criminal...
Douglas A. Berman
Sentences Reconsidered
Who Sentences
The folks at The Sentencing Project released this new 36-page report about two states' experiences with in-prison voting. Here are excerpts from the report's executive symmary: Only two U.S. states – Maine and Vermont – do not disrupt the voting...
Douglas A. Berman
Collateral consequences
Prisons and prisoners
The title of this post is the title of this new paper just posted to SSRN and authored by Dennis D. Hirsch, Jared Ott, Angie Westover-Munoz and Chris Yaluma. Here is its abstract: Federal and state criminal justice systems use...
Douglas A. Berman
Procedure and Proof at Sentencing
Technocorrections
Who Sentences
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