The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by MaryAnn Grover now available via SSRN.  Here is the abstract: The well-documented randomness and arbitrariness that plagues capital sentencing stems from the wide discretion granted to sentencing actors, namely jurors.  However, this wide discretion exists in the non-capital sentencing context as well.  Accordingly, arbitrary sentences are not confined to the capital sentencing context. Instead these arbitrary sentences result from structural choices…

As reported in this local article, the Kentucky Supreme Court heard a notable death penalty case yesterday.  Here are the details: Kentucky could become the first death penalty state to put additional age restrictions on capital punishment.  Currently, 18 is the legal age allowed in the United States.  However, the Supreme Court of Kentucky could ban the death penalty for defendants who committed a crime between the ages of 18 and 21. On Thursday,…

The title of this post is the title of this new article forthcoming in the Federal Sentencing Reporter authored by Wayne Logan and now available via SSRN.  Here is its abstract: In Timbs v. Indiana, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause is an incorporated protection under the Fourteenth Amendment and therefore regulates state and local governments.  The unanimous result, wedding liberal and conservative Justices alike, was backed by an…

As reported in this Hill piece,”President hopeful Beto O’Rourke on Thursday unveiled a plan to legalize marijuana and end the war on drugs.” Here are the basics: The former Texas congressman would grant clemency to those currently serving sentences for marijuana possession, establish a model for marijuana legalization and give grants to those affected by the war on drugs to help them benefit from the new industry. The “Drug War Justice Grants” would be…

Earlier this month in this post, I flagged the Sixth Circuit panel ruling in US v. Boucher, No. 18-5683 (6th Cir. Sept. 9, 2019) (available here), which concluded that a month-long sentence was unreasonably short after an intricate multi-page analysis of § 3553(a) factors.  The detailed circuit analysis especially faulted the district court’s consideration of personal factors and the failure “to address the risk of sentence disparities.”  In my post about the…

The question in the title of this post is the heading of this new posting at the Prison Policy Initiative building off the the group’s recent big report Arrest, Release, Repeat.  Here is part of the set up to the latest state-by-state data analysis (which requires a click through to see in detail): County and city jails have been called “mass incarceration’s front door,” but campaigns to reform or close jails often don’t receive the…

US Sentencing Commission has this week published here its “3rd Quarter … Preliminary Fiscal Year 2019 Data.”  As previously noted in this post when the USSC released data on offenders sentenced during the first half of fiscal year 2018, the Commission has recently tinkered with how it accounts and reports sentencing data.  This new data run notes some additional tweaking, though the very first chart about federal offenders by type is quite straight-forward and always…