New US Sentencing Commission Data: 3rd Qtr. 2011 Just released from the US Sentencing Commission is their quarterly report containing a considerable amount of data concerning the October – June months of sentencing in United States courts. Below is a short, and by no means total, breakdown of some of the interesting data points. Sentences …
New US Sentencing Commission Data Shows Interesting Trends Read More »
Pretrial Defendants Many times a federal criminal defendant can sit on pretrial status for a long time. Sometimes this status can last years. In Crack Cocaine cases, this can create a problem at sentencing when district courts try to decide which rules to follow. Who FSA Applies to (and Who it Doesn’t) The Fair Sentencing …
3rd Circuit Applies Lower Mandatory Minimum Terms to FSA Pipeline Cases Read More »
Mens Rea (Criminal Intent) Not Necessary The title of this post is taken from a recent article detailing the American way of criminal justice, its ever-expanding number of criminal laws, and its diminishing need for criminal intent. Whereas a vast majority of crimes used to be under state and local laws, the federal criminal machine …
As The Right Bemoans Norway’s Criminal Justice System, It Is One Of The Safest Countries On Earth This heading is the title of this article from ThinkProgress which takes a close look at the criminal justice statistics of Norway’s criminal justice system. There has been a sharp emotional response to Norway’s statutory maximum prison sentence …
Rehabilitative Sentences are Illegal If you have a loved one who was sentenced to a longer than normal term of imprisonment specifically so he or she could participate in rehabilitative programs within the Bureau of Prisons, that sentence is unlawful and we can help get it reversed! Please read on for important information. Contact Us …
The title of this article is also the title of this piece by Daniel J. Solove and is available via SSRN. This lengthy argument highlights the argument I made in this post about the tradeoffs between safety and security. His point seems to mirror my own. Here is the abstract: “If you’ve got nothing to …
Nothing to Hide: The False Tradeoff between Privacy and Security Read More »
Huge News for Relief Seekers The United States Sentencing Commission, in a unanimous vote on June 30, 2011, made retroactive the sentencing guideline in certain Crack Cocaine reduction cases to those already sentenced and serving time for their offenses. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 changed the guidelines for federal sentencing in all future “Cocaine …
USSC Crack Reduction Vote From the Associated Press, an article about the United States Sentencing Commission vote today to determine if the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 will be made retroactive to currently incarcerated Crack Cocaine offenders. If passed, this could take an about 3 years off a sentence of a conviction involving Crack Cocaine. …
Vote to Determine Retroactivity of Crack Reduction Today Read More »
How America’s Federal Government is Taking Over “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”– Benjamin Franklin Today, the United States (federal) government enjoys unprecedented power over its individual citizens. With each new administration that enters 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., new legislation is passed that encroaches …
The (over)Power of the Federal Government in America Read More »
Life without Parole for Selling Drugs In a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals concurring opinion, Judge Davis wrote what many judges, including the sentencing judge in the lower Court in this case, have expressed about the mandates for sentencing in the “War on Drugs”. It is said so well in Judge Davis’ opinion that the …
