j u s t c r i m

McNeill v. United States (No. 10-5258) | Decided June 6, 2011

SCOTUSblog opinion analysis;

SentenceSpeak Blog (FAMM) opinion analysis;

THOMAS, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court: 

"Under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), a priorstate drug-trafficking conviction is for a “serious drug of-fense” if “a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years or more is prescribed by law” for the offense. 18 U. S. C. §924(e)(2)(A)(ii). The question in this case concerns how afederal court should determine the maximum sentence for a prior state drug offense for ACCA purposes. We hold that the “maximum term of imprisonment” for a defen-dant’s prior state drug offense is the maximum sentence applicable to his offense when he was convicted of it...."

California and Plata

Sentencing Law and Policy blog wonders aloud whether California will be able to effectively reduce its prison populations ...  See

Is California so dysfunctional that doom and gloom is the right reaction to Plata?

"Exclusive: Pornography found in bin Laden hideout" | Sentencing Law and Policy Perspective

Professor Berman - Sentencing Law and Policy:

" ... Of course, my first reaction and question in response to this story is whether the discovered porn was all just legal stuff or contraband kiddie porn. (If is was the illegal kiddie stuff, Bin Laden might have scored a record-high on the federal sentencing guidelines had he been captured and tried in a civilian court. After all, mass murder scores high on the federal sentencing guidelines, but mass murder plus possession of kiddie porn could really set a record.) ..."

via sentencing.typepad.com

TAPIA v. US (10-5400) ORAL ARGUMENT: Monday, April 18, 2011

TAPIA v. US (10-5400) ORAL ARGUMENT:  Monday, April 18, 2011. 

The Alejandra Tapia case: Is prison for punishment or rehabilitation? - latimes.com

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that focuses on a narrow issue: whether a judge had the right to increase a convicted defendant's sentence so she could participate in a rehabilitation program in prison. But the case of Alejandra Tapia also raises the much broader question of whether Congress should reconsider the nature and purpose of incarceration.

After being convicted of smuggling illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, Tapia came before a federal judge who sentenced her to a period in prison long enough for her to enter a drug rehabilitation program with a long waiting list. The judge said that "one of the factors that affects this is the need to provide treatment."

His heart was in the right place. Faced with a woman with a sad history, he sought to use his office to help her improve her situation. But Tapia's lawyer cites language in federal law saying that "imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation." The only approved objectives of imprisonment are deterrence, incapacitation and retribution.

via www.latimes.com

[The criminal justice system defies logic and doesn't rehabilitate people in need of rehabilitation]

SCOTUSblog: "Two executions blocked over lawyers role"

The Supreme Court, delaying scheduled executions in Arizona and Texas on Monday night and Tuesday, has put itself in a position to take on an issue that has lingered unresolved for two decades: whether there is a constitutional right to a lawyer performing effectively in a new challenge started after a conviction has become final.

The Court has ruled previously that the right to a lawyer applies in several stages of a criminal case, including the first appeal after a guilty verdict is in, and it has ruled that the right includes a guarantee that the lawyer will have done an adequate job.  But the Court generally has refused to allow such a right in what is called a “post-conviction” challenge, often pursued under a habeas law once the first round of appeals is over and the conviction has become final.

However, it has left some room to recognize such a right, and the new cases seek to take advantage of that.  In each case, the claim is that the defense lawyer failed to provide an effective professional performance in a post-conviction proceeding.

via www.scotusblog.com

Supreme Court decision on sentencing guidelines gives judges more leeway - The Washington Post

Jason Pepper, a former meth addict and drug dealer from the heartland, says he got lucky when he was finally arrested. A sympathetic judge gave him a fraction of the prison time he could have received and, more importantly, sent him to a place where he got extensive drug treatment.

Then his luck ran out, when appeals courts said his sentence was too lenient. Even though all acknowledged that he had turned his life around, he was sent back to prison.

But perhaps his fortunes have turned again. The Supreme Court plucked his petition from the thousands that make their way to the court each year. This month, Pepper won his case in a victory that gives federal judges more leeway to provide second chances to the criminals who come before them.

via www.washingtonpost.com

state of sentencing 2010 [ sentencing project ]

THE STATE OF SENTENCING 2010 | DEVELOPMENTS IN POLICY AND PRACTICE
"Today, 7.2 million men and women are under correctional supervision. Of
this total, five million are monitored in the community on probation or
parole and 2.3 million are incarcerated in prisons or jails. As a result the
nation maintains the highest rate of incarceration in the world at 743 per 100,000
population...." [ Sentencing Project ]

Schwarzenegger Commutes Sentence of Human Trafficking Victim | Criminal Justice | Change.org

No country outside the United States allows children to be sentenced to life without the chance of parole, a life behind bars without the chance of redemption. In California alone, around 275 children have received such a sentence, belying the right-wing caricature of the state as a bastion of unchecked bleeding-heart liberalism.

On Sunday, outgoing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) – set to be replaced today by the nominally liberal, prison guard-endorsed Jerry Brown (D) – granted clemency to one child whose story we've covered in-depth here at Change.org: Sara Kruzan.

Sara was sentenced to life without parole at 16 after she was convicted of killing the man who had raped and forced her into a life of prostitution three years earlier – when she was just 13. Now 33, Sara has spent more than half her life in a prison, where she has become both a model inmate and a poignant example of the evils of California's mass incarceration problem.

via criminaljustice.change.org

My life saved by reprieve of 24-year sentence for crack - CNN.com

Editor's note: Kemba Smith Pradia has received awards for her efforts to educate the public about the social, economic and political consequences of drug policies. She received a Soros Justice Postgraduate Fellowship for advocates and is developing the Kemba Smith Foundation.

Indianapolis (CNN) -- Ten years ago, days before Christmas, President Bill Clinton changed my life forever. I was in federal prison, serving the seventh year of a 24-year sentence for a first-time nonviolent crack cocaine offense.

Clinton's mercy and acknowledgement that my sentence was unjust led him to grant me a commutation. Had he not done so, I would be in prison until 2016. On December 22, the anniversary of my release, I will join others in a fast for justice to honor those in prison who deserve the same relief from their long sentences for low-level drug offenses.

via www.cnn.com

[ Imagine - Our system of "justice" handed a first-time, nonviolent crack cocaine offender a 24 year sentence .. I don't care what SCOTUS says about sentencing proportionality, this is absolutely cruel and unusual punishment ]

Abbott v. United States (09-479); Gould v. United States (09-7073)

GINSBURG, J.,  Holding: A defendant is subject to the highest mandatory minimum specified for his conduct in 18 U.S.C. 924(c) unless another provision of law directed to conduct proscribed by Section 924(c) specifically imposes an even greater mandatory minimum sentence.

Judgment: AFFIRMED, 8-0, in an opinion by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on November 15, 2010. Justice Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of these cases.  "As one of several measures to punish gun possession bypersons engaged in crime, Congress made it a discreteoffense to use, carry, or possess a deadly weapon in connection with "any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime." 18 U. S. C. §924(c)(1). The minimum prison term for the offense described in §924(c) is five years,§924(c)(1)(A)(i), in addition to "any other term of imprisonment imposed on the [offender]," §924(c)(1)(D)(ii). The two consolidated cases before us call for interpretation of §924(c) as that provision was reformulated in 1998...."

 

justice john paul stevens: speech on harmelin

Justice John Paul Stevens, SPEECH at the National Legal Aid & Defender Assoc. Exemplar Award Dinner (JW Marriott Hotel Washington, D.C., Wednesday Oct. 6, 2010.

"It was a five-to-four decision; the ... opinions occupy 73 pages in volume 501 of the U.S. Reports. The name of the case is Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957 (1991).

Harmelin, a first-time offender, was convicted of possession of over 650 grams of a mixture containing cocaine.  ...

I understand that the quantity actually possessed by Harmelin - 672 grams, or a little less than a pound and a half - could have been carried in a brown paper bag or concealed in a glove compartment. 

Pursuant to Michigan law, he received a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. ...

The question presented to the Court  was whether that sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment within the meaning of the federal constitution. ..."

neuroscience, sentencing, and the genome ...

Inside The Criminal Brain (NPR Series) - neuroscience, sentencing, and the genome ...

judges: thumbs down 2 mandatory minimums

National Law Journal: "Judges Give Thumbs Down to Crack, Pot, Porn Mandatory Minimums" http://bit.ly/bWGMeF

the sentence has since been reduced from life to 27 years, but she still has 10 years left to go

ACLU Statement Before the U.S. Sentencing Commission Hearing “Statutory Mandatory Minimum Penalties in Federal Sentencing”  (via Cato) ...

Jay Rorty ACLU:   "I told the commission the story of an ACLU client, Hamedah Hasan, who received a life sentence for a first-time, nonviolent drug offense under the most extenuating circumstances: she came to stay with her cousin in order to flee a physically abusive relationship, and the cousin roped her into running errands for his drug conspiracy.  Despite her previously clean record, her sentencing judge found his hands tied by a combination of mandatory minimums for crack cocaine and the then-mandatory sentencing guidelines based on those minimums.

Hamedah’s sentence has since been reduced from life to 27 years, but she still has 10 years left to go..." [REST OF CATO'S "MANDATORY MINIMUM" POST]

Statement of Jay Rorty
American Civil Liberties Union, Center for Justice
Public Hearing Before the
United States Sentencing Commission
“Statutory Mandatory Minimum Penalties in Federal Sentencing”
Washington, D.C.

us sentencing commission survey

United States Sentencing Commission (http://www.ussc.gov/)

Results of Survey of United States District Judges: January 2010 through March 2010

The United States Sentencing Commission undertook to survey all United States district court judges concerning their views and opinions on a wide range of sentencing policy issues... [full text]  [via Sentencing Law and Policy]
 

SCOTUS sentencing decisions released

I join the thousands of blogs and news outlets breaking ....

news

Supreme Court: Sex offenders can be kept in prison

[MSNBC] Justices rule that federal officials can indefinitely hold inmates considered "sexually dangerous" after their prison terms are complete.

 & --Justices ban life terms in some teen cases

marijuana legalization | cnbc special focus

Marijuana and Money: A CNBC Special Report:  "The legalization of marijuana is no longer the unthinkable.  On a state level, in California, for instance, it could be a reality later this year.   Some 56 percent of people polled there already support the regulation and taxation of marijuana, ahead of a November public referendum to do just that.

"Medical marijuana is now legal in California and 13 other states, while more are considering it. The drug has been decriminalized in 12 states, and in Denver voters opted to legalize a small amount for personal consumption for those over 21 years old, even though Colorado law says otherwise.

"All of this is creating a legal thicket involving jurisdictional authority because on a federal level, marijuana is not legal in any way, shape or form..." (via Sentencing Law & Policy)

 

sentencing futures

Punishment as suffering ( the subjective calibration ): the scholarly conversation proliferates in a way i find strange ...  Is it simply the logical result of interdisciplinarity in legal scholarship or is it the genesis of an authentic conversation on corrections and sentencing futures? 

smaller prison count breaks 38-year trend

Smaller prison count breaks 38-year trend. (Stateline.org - State policy & politics, updated daily):

Mississippi is a tough-on-crime state, and in 1995, like many tough-on-crime states, it approved a version of “truth in sentencing” — a popular law requiring inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their prison terms before they could be considered for parole. More than half the states have similar laws on the books.

Mississippi, however, changed course two years ago. Responding to budget constraints and a surge in its prison population — from about 12,000 inmates in 1995 to more than 22,000 in 2008 — lawmakers revisited truth in sentencing. They changed the law so nonviolent offenders would be eligible for parole after serving a quarter, not 85 percent, of their sentences. Over the course of the next year, more than 3,000 inmates were released an average of 13 months earlier than they otherwise would have been.

The move put Mississippi at the leading edge of a major national change, one that appears to be the result of teeming prisons, a deep recession and changing attitudes toward corrections. For the first time in 38 years, state prison populations declined in 2009, according to a 50-state survey released Wednesday (March 17) by the Pew Center on the States, the parent organization of Stateline.org..."

a psa for frontline prison programming

The Prison Law Blog pulls together a great short list of current Frontline shows on prison and crime related issues.  Check it out:

"The PBS documentary series Frontline also makes its programming available online at www.pbs.org. Here are a few Frontline episodes to start with if you’re interested in prison and jail issues — note that each of these websites includes not just streaming video of the episode itself, but also links to a range of related resources and information:

• “The Released” (2009): What happens to mentally ill offenders after they leave prison, and why do so many return? A sequel of sorts to 2005’s The New Asylums (see below).
• “When Kids Get Life” (2007): What should be done with children who commit murder?
• “The Meth Epidemic” (2006): Why has meth use exploded in the U.S. and what policy solutions might work?
• “The New Asylums” (2005): Why are so many mentally ill men and women in prison, and what kind of treatment to they receive there? Focused on the Ohio state prison system.
• “The Plea” (2004): Examining the plea bargaining process that resolves 95%+ of criminal cases in the U.S.
• “Burden of Innocence” (2003): After years of wrongful imprisonment, what happens to men who are exonerated once they get out of prison?"

"gonna go to slidell ... " | sentencing horror stories

Slidell man sentenced to 100 years in prison for possessing child porn [By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch.  December 03, 2009]

A 43-year-old Slidell man on Thursday received 100 years in prison for possessing child pornography and about a pound of marijuana.

 State Judge William "Rusty" Knight sentenced Andrew Galatas under stiffer sentencing guidelines after Knight determined that St. Tammany Parish Assistant District Attorney Scott Gardner had sucessfully labeled Galatas a habitual offender.

 None of the images was of local children and Galatas had not taken any of them himself,  only downloaded them off the Web,  authorities said.

 A 12-member St. Tammany jury had found him guilty on Nov. 10 as charged of the two possession charges.

 Although pornography involving juveniles carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison,  Galatas has other felony convictions on his record so could be considered a habitual offender.

 He has molestation of a juvenile and a sexual battery charges from 1997, a possession of stolen property over $500 charge in 1996 and an issuing worthless checks over $100 charge from 1995.

HLPR ONLINE -Symposium: Confronting the Costs of Incarceration

Harvard Law & Policy Review -Symposium: Confronting the Costs of Incarceration

Foreword: Incarceration American-Style
Sharon Dolovich

Supporting Advisory Guidelines
Judge Nancy Gertner

Integrative Solutions to Interrelated Issues: A Multidisciplinary Look Behind the Cycle of Incarceration
Nkechi Taifa and Catherine Beane

Reducing Mass Incarceration: Implications of the Iron Law of Prison Populations
Todd R. Clear and James Austin

an example of a rule

"The law is made up of rules and standards. Here is an example of a rule, established by the Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons in 2005: If you commit murder even hours before your 18th birthday, you cannot be put to death for your crime. The same killing a few hours later may be a capital offense. The court drew a bright-line rule at 18..." Adam Liptak, New York Times, "Sidebar - Bright Lines Blur in Juvenile Sentencing" (November 23, 2009) 

attorney general holder speaks

Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force Press Conference Washington, D.C. ~ Tuesday, November 17, 2009

the teen brain

Maroney, Terry A., The False Promise of Adolescent Brain Science in Juvenile Justice (May 18, 2009). Gruter Institute Squaw Valley Conference 2009: Law, Behavior & the Brain; Notre Dame Law Review, Vol. 85, 2010. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1405367

"...[M]any believe that developmental neuroscience contributed to the U.S. Supreme Court’s elimination of the juvenile death penalty in Roper v. Simmons. Post-Roper, scholars assert that the developmentally normal attributes of the teen brain counsel differential treatment of young offenders, and advocates increasingly make such arguments before the courts..."

federal justice statistics, 2006 - statistical tables

Federal Justice Statistics, 2006 - Statistical Tables:  "Describes criminal case processing in the federal justice system, including arrest and booking through sentencing and corrections. These statistical tables present the number of suspects arrested and booked by the U.S. Marshals Service, suspects in matters investigated and prosecuted by U.S. attorneys, defendants adjudicated and sentenced in U.S. district court, and characteristics of federal prisoners and offenders under federal supervision.

Data are from the Federal Justice Statistics Program (FJSP), which collects comprehensive information describing suspects and defendants processed in the federal criminal justice system, and annual data on workload, activities, and outcomes associated with federal criminal cases. The data presented in these tables were collected from  the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA), Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (AOUSC), U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), and the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

The Urban Institute prepared these tables under the supervision of Mark Motivans, Ph.D., of the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The tables were prepared under BJS grant number 2005-BJ-CX-K004. The BJS-sponsored Federal Justice Statistics Resource Center (FJSRC) provides online access to the federal justice database. Users may download data from the federal justice database for independent analysis or use the online query system to obtain customized statistics..."

Print version (PDF format 1.5M) | Spreadsheets (zip format 57K)

redemption song

Huffington Post:  Wayne Kramer (May 15, 2009) - "My Return to Prison: Views on the Failed Drug War from Inside Sing Sing"

"You would have to be living on the moon to not know what a disaster the "War On Drugs" has been. Twenty billion dollars a year for the last 30 years, two million Americans in prison -- 60% of them non-violent drug offenders ..."

"are we ready to move beyond our failed war on drugs?"

Huffington Post(May 14, 2009):  "Ending the War on Drugs: The Moment is Now" ...  "On the rhetorical front, all the president's men are saying the right things.  In his first interview since being confirmed, Obama's new drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, said that we need to stop looking at our drug problem as a war. "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs" or a 'war on product,'" he told the Wall Street Journal, "people see war as a war on them. We're not at war with people in this country."" [emphasis added]