A number of readers kindly made sure I did not miss an amusing sentencing story out of Iowa effectively summarized by the headline of this local press report, “Court: Life sentence not finished until death is permanent.” Here are the basics via the press account: The Iowa Court of Appeals has rejected the claims of a Wapello County man convicted of murder in 1997 who said a medical emergency fulfilled his life sentence. Benjamin…

The title of this post is the title of this recent research paper authored by John MacDonald and Steven Raphael that I just came across.  Here is its abstract: Research Summary In late 2014, California voters passed Proposition 47 that redefined a set of less serious felony drug and property offenses as misdemeanors.  We examine how racial disparities in criminal court dispositions in San Francisco change in the years before (2010-2014) and after (2015-2016) the…

As all law geeks know, the November issue of the Harvard Law Review is always devoted to the Supreme Court’s prior Term work.  And as all long-time readers know, I have often been disappointed when the November SCOTUS issue does not give considerable attention to the Court’s considerable criminal justice work.  But, providing another exciting sign of the criminal justice times, the latest HLR issue, which is now available online here, gives criminal justice reform…

In this post from July, I noted this Reuters article on some of the court skirmishes over the crack sentencing retroactivity provisions of the FIRST STEP Act.  That piece carried this headline: “As new U.S. law frees inmates, prosecutors seek to lock some back up.”  Now the Washington Post has this lengthy piece in a similar vein under this headline: “Trump boasts that his landmark law is freeing these inmates. His Justice Department wants them…

The question in the title of this post is prompted by milestones reached and celebrated by the Trump Administration yesterday.  This Bloomberg article, headlined “Trump Boasts of GOP Success Confirming His Judicial Nominees,” provides some background: President Donald Trump celebrated Republicans’ record on confirming federal judges on Wednesday, saying his administration has done better than any other in terms of “quality and quantity” of judges appointed to the bench…. The president’s comments came as…

The title of this post is the headline of this notable new Boston Globe commentary authored by Nancy Gertner and Marc Mauer. Here are excerpts: While there has been a great deal of attention in recent years to the impact of the drug war on growing prison populations, in fact, the main drivers of the prison system now are excessive sentences for violent offenses. The statistics are troubling.  There are as many individuals [in Massachusetts]…