I have done a couple of 2025 posts (here and here) drawing on big city “real time” homicide data from police departments to detail the remarkable decline in murders apparently unfolding in many large urban areas through the
Sentencing Law and Policy
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"Confronting Uncharged Conduct"
The title of this post is the title of this new article available via SSRN and authored by Barnett Harris and Christopher Merken. Here is its abstract:
Every year, federal judges sentence tens of thousands of criminal defendants to carceral…
Latest data on death rows in US (at roughly start of second Trump Administration)
Via this post by Robert Dunham at The DP3 Substack, I see that the Legal Defense Fund has released its latest accounting of persons on death rows in the US, Death Row USA, Spring 2025. The LDF document, which…
"The Nuances of Prosecutorial Nonenforcement"
The title of this post is the title of this new article authored by Carissa Byrne Hessick and Meighan Parsh now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:
The academic literature on prosecutors is divided: Some commentors believe that prosecutors…
Could Prez Trump's new EO on overcriminalization prompt the US Sentencing Commission to review strict liability guideline enhancements?
As flagged in this post, just a couple of days before he left the Oval Office back in 2021, Prez Trump issued an exective order titled “Executive Order on Protecting Americans From Overcriminalization Through Regulatory Reform.” I am pretty…
En banc Ninth Circuit broadly rejects Second Amendment challenge to federal felon-in-possession prohibition
Yesterday the Ninth Circuit via a lengthy en banc ruling in US v. Duarte, No. 22-50048 (9th Cir. May 9, 2025) (available here), rejected a Second Amendment challenge to the federal criminal law, 18 USC § 922(g)(1), that…
Brief initial reflections on the late Justice David Souter's sentencing law legacy
As reported in this extensive New York Times piece authored by Linda Greenhouse, “David H. Souter, a New Hampshire Republican who was named to the Supreme Court by President George H.W. Bush and who over 19 years on that bench…
After withdrawal as US Attorney nomination, Prez Trump states he will have Ed Martin serve as DOJ's Pardon Attorney
As reported in this Reuters article, Prez Trump is changing path with a new nominee for the top federal prosecutor in Washington DC: “President Donald Trump on Thursday appointed Fox News host Jeanine Pirro to serve as Washington, D.C.’s…
"Equality in Sentencing Mitigation"
The title of this post is the title of this new article now available via SSRN authored by John B. Meixner Jr. Here is its abstract:
As guilty-plea rates have skyrocketed, sentencing has become an increasingly important part of criminal…
"Punishing Violence"
The title of this post is the title of this new paper authored by Shima Baradaran Baughman now available via SSRN. Here is its abstract:
The American criminal justice system is known to dole out the harshest punishments in the…