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I find second-look sentencing provisions so interesting and important because so much can happen after a lengthy sentence is imposed that can justify taking a second look at that sentence. This reality was on full display in a second-look sentencing... Douglas A. Berman Celebrity sentencings Sentences Reconsidered

This new Reuters article discusses (too) briefly Justice Jackson's comments today about the federal sentencing guidelines at the ABA's White Collar Crime Institute: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said on Thursday she would support revisiting sentencing guidelines for... Douglas A. Berman Federal Sentencing Guidelines White-collar sentencing

In this post more than seven years ago, I flagged a decision by the Supreme Court of Delaware, Smack v. Delaware, No. 601 (Del. Oct. 11, 2017) (available here), in which the court rules that a sentencing judge complied with... Douglas A. Berman Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Sentences Reconsidered Who Sentences

As detailed on this webpage, the US Sentencing Commission has today released a notable new study analyzing federal drug trafficking offenses that involved an overdose. Here is how the report is summarized on that page: "The Commission’s research report Overdoses... Douglas A. Berman Drug Offense Sentencing Federal Sentencing Guidelines Offense Characteristics

Brad Sigmon, who a quarter century ago murdered his ex-girlfriend’s parents, chose to be executed by firing squad rather than via the two other methods available in South Carolina, the electric chair and lethal injection. This execution is scheduled for... Douglas A. Berman Death Penalty Reforms Who Sentences

In this post late last week, I noted a new article by Daniel Loehr available via SSRN titled "The Eugenic History of Habitual Offender Laws." Today I received an email from The Sentencing Project about its new report, authored by... Douglas A. Berman Mandatory minimum sentencing statutes Offender Characteristics Scope of Imprisonment

As I have mentioned in the past and will surely mention again in the future, there are too many notable daily and weekly developments in our nation's prisons and jails to cover them all (or even to cover some well)... Douglas A. Berman Prisons and prisoners

NBC News has this lengthy new piece, headlined "Biden and Trump pardons come under scrutiny, renewing calls for reform," that is long on recent clemency criticisms (especially Prez Biden's last-minute clemency flurry) and short on serious clemency reform discussions. The... Douglas A. Berman Clemency and Pardons Procedure and Proof at Sentencing Who Sentences

Via email, I learned of an exciting event taking place on April 4, 2025, in Phildelphia. Here is the event description drawn from the email text of LawProf Lucian Dervan, who is the Founding Director of the Plea Bargaining Institute:... Douglas A. Berman Procedure and Proof at Sentencing

Thanks only to a Facebook post by John Pfaff, today I discovered that the Major Cities Chiefs Association has released this national data from its violent crime surveys at year end 2024. These data show that all categories of violent... Douglas A. Berman National and State Crime Data