Feb
16
Racial Disparities in the Federal Death Penalty: Uncovering the Key Role of Geography
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | February 16, 2011 | 1 Comment
The federal death penalty is plagued by two important types of disparity. One is racial: as of last year, nearly half of federal death row inmates (28 of 57) were black. The other is geographic: out of the 94 federal districts, just 16 have produced 75 percent of the death sentences, and nine have produced nearly [...]
Jan
6
Preview of Sykes, the Supreme Court’s Latest ACCA Case
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | January 6, 2011 | 1 Comment
The Supreme Court will hear argument on January 12 in Sykes v. United States, the latest entry in its recent series of cases on the Armed Career Criminal Act. This case may provide a good opportunity for the Court to clarify what state of mind is required for a prior conviction to trigger the ACCA’s fifteen-year [...]
Dec
13
SCOTUS to Decide Whether Sentencing Judge Can Base Prison Term on Time Needed for Treatment Program
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | December 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment
On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed to resolve a longstanding circuit split on the question of whether a federal sentencing judge may set the length of a prison term based on what the judge believes will be necessary for a defendant to complete a prison-based treatment program. The case is Tapia v. United States (No. 10-5400). [...]
Dec
9
Convicted of Drug Distribution, Sentenced for Homicide
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | December 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Just in time for exam-writing law professors comes the Seventh Circuit’s opinion in United States v. Krieger (No. 09-1333) — a case that has just that sort of counter-intuitive, “it can’t be right” flavor that makes great testing fodder. Among other things, the case illustrates the odd place we have ended up in our jurisprudence on procedural [...]
Nov
27
Cleaning Up the ACCA Mess
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment
David Holman has a helpful new article exploring the mess that has become the Armed Career Criminal Act jurisprudence in the wake of Begay v. United States. (I’ve blogged about this unfolding jurisprudence several times, e.g., here and here.) The ACCA, of course, imposes a fifteen-year mandatory minimum for felons in possession of a firearm who have three or [...]
Nov
16
SCOTUS Okays Piling on Mandatory Minimums — In the Name of Proportionality?
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | November 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Yesterday, the Supreme Court held in Abbott v. United States that the five-year mandatory minimum prescribed by 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) must be imposed consecutively to other mandatory minimums imposed pursuant to other statutes. The 924(c) mandatory minimum targets defendants who have used, carried, or possessed a firearm in connection with a crime of violence or [...]
Oct
15
Defense Counsel and Sentencing: Tenth Circuit Indicates That Lawyers Must Advise Clients on Relevant Conduct
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | October 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment
In a criminal-justice system dominated by plea-bargaining and harsh sentencing laws, the core responsibility of a defense lawyer is no longer to seek acquittals at trial, but to minimize the harm suffered by the client as a result of a conviction. Ineffective assistance law should reflect this reality. Padilla v. Kentucky and its progeny (see this post) [...]
Oct
14
Seventh Circuit Reverses Position on Fast-Track Sentencing
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | October 14, 2010 | 1 Comment
Last week, in United States v. Reyes-Hernandez (No. 09-1249), the Seventh Circuit overruled United States v. Galicia-Cardenas, 443 F.3d 553 (7th Cir. 2006), and held that sentencing judges may consider “the disparate treatment of immigration defendants that is created by fast-track programs in determining whether a Guidelines sentence is greater than necessary under the § [...]
Oct
12
SCOTUS to Rule on Meaning of “Cocaine Base”
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | October 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment
In a 1986 law that must surely rate as one of Congress’s most ill-informed overreactions to a high-profile tragedy– the cocaine-related death of college basketball star Len Bias — a new mandatory minimum ten-year sentence was created for drug offenders involved in dealing 50 or more grams of “cocaine base.” Never mind that Bias used the [...]
Oct
5
Sentence Explanation in the Seventh Circuit: What’s Good for the Goose . . .
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | October 5, 2010 | 1 Comment
Ever since the Supreme Court converted the federal sentencing guidelines from mandatory to advisory in 2005, I’ve followed with particular interest the case law on how sentences must be explained in the new regime. Even more specifically, I have focused on the question of when sentencing judges are required to respond expressly to defendants’ arguments [...]
Sep
30
Burglary, Violence, and the Armed Career Criminal Act
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | September 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment
The U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics has issued a new report on victimization during household burglary, which might have important implications for the application of the Armed Career Criminal Act. First, here are the report’s highlights on the burglary-violence connection: A household member is present in about one-quarter of residential burlgaries. A household member is violently [...]
Aug
27
New Comments Address Fraud Sentencing and Deferred Prosecution Agreements
Posted by: Janine Y. Kim | August 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment
The latest issue of the Marquette Law Review features a student comment by Ryan Parsons on the treatment of “temporary victims” under the federal sentencing guidelines. In crimes such as bank fraud, individual accountholders that have been defrauded are often reimbursed by the bank and, therefore, made economically whole. Such reimbursed accountholders are often ignored [...]
Blog Editors
- Alan Borsuk
- Bruce E. Boyden
- Edward A. Fallone
- Melissa L. Greipp
- Scott C. Idleman
- Lisa Mazzie
- Michael M. O'Hear
- Ryan Scoville
