{"id":5885,"date":"2009-07-01T22:12:05","date_gmt":"2009-07-02T03:12:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=5885"},"modified":"2009-07-01T22:14:55","modified_gmt":"2009-07-02T03:14:55","slug":"explaining-sentences-in-wisconsin-and-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2009\/07\/explaining-sentences-in-wisconsin-and-federal-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Explaining Sentences in Wisconsin and Federal Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a new paper on SSRN <\/a>entitled “Appellate Review of Sentence Explanations: Learning from the Wisconsin and Federal Experiences.”\u00a0 As I observed in a recent\u00a0post<\/a>, I’ve become very interested in the way that sentences are explained to defendants, and how appellate review of explanations can potentially contribute both to procedural justice goals and to substantively better sentences.\u00a0 My forthcoming article <\/a>in the\u00a0Florida State Law Review<\/em> focuses on “explanation review” in the federal system.\u00a0 The new paper focuses on the contrasting experience in Wisconsin and proposes a general framework for explanation review that blends the best features of the Wisconsin and federal systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As I see it, the basic\u00a0flaw of the federal system is to permit sentencing judges to avoid any explicit engagement with the purposes of punishment if they impose a sentence within the recommended guidelines range.\u00a0\u00a0In a sense, the\u00a0basic flaw\u00a0of the Wisconsin system is the reverse: the Wisconsin Supreme Court\u00a0permits sentencing judges to avoid\u00a0any explicit engagement with the state sentencing guidelines (or any other objective benchmark); little more is required than an explanation that expressly\u00a0invokes the purposes of punishment and references a few case-specific facts.\u00a0 My proposal seeks to promote engagement with both guidelines and purposes.<\/p>\n

I presented the paper\u00a0earlier this month at the Marquette Criminal Appeals Conference<\/a>.\u00a0 It will appear in a symposium issue of the Marquette Law Review<\/em> this winter.\u00a0 The abstract appears after the jump.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

For at least half a century, reformers have urged American appellate courts to play a more active role in the sentencing process. Outside a small number of jurisdictions with binding sentencing guidelines, however, the appellate courts have generally failed to establish a meaningful role for themselves. The present article focuses on one particular function that appellate courts might usefully perform: that is, reviewing the adequacy of the explanations given by trial-court judges to justify their sentencing decisions. Such “explanation review” is conceptually distinct from substantive review of the sentence: the former asks whether the sentence has been adequately justified, while the latter asks whether the sentence could be adequately justified. As a matter of formal doctrine, explanation review is already an accepted feature of the sentencing law in several jurisdictions. But courts have struggled to give the explanation requirement coherent content, and few sentences are actually overturned on the basis of inadequate explanation. The difficulties may stem, in part, from the courts’ failure to appreciate what may be achieved through rigorous explanation review.<\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, the purposes of the present article are threefold. First, the article makes the case for robust explanation review, identifying several useful purposes that are plausibly served by a systematically enforced explanation requirement. Second, the article describes and critiques the explanation review jurisprudence in two specific jurisdictions, Wisconsin and the federal system. Finally, drawing on the best parts of the Wisconsin and federal case law, the article proposes a set of principles that may be used to give explanation review more precise and rigorous content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a new paper on SSRN entitled “Appellate Review of Sentence Explanations: Learning from the Wisconsin and Federal Experiences.”\u00a0 As I observed in a recent\u00a0post, I’ve become very interested in the way that sentences are explained to defendants, and how appellate review of explanations can potentially contribute both to procedural justice goals and to 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