« Ind. Courts - Stll more on: "Clark County Legal Self-Help Center has a green light, even if full judicial support is yet to be determined"; Marion County observations | Main | Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 2 today (and 5 NFP) »

Monday, December 20, 2010

Courts - IU Mauer Law prof's study of post-Booker sentencing realities in Massachusetts federal courts cited

"Disparity cited in sentence lengths" is the headline today to this long Boston Globe story by Jonathan Saltzman. The US Supreme Court struck down mandatory sentencing guidelines five years ago:

Now that the guidelines are only advisory, the three most lenient jurists [in the federal District of Mass] impose average prison sentences of slightly more than two years for all crimes, said the study in the Stanford Law Review published this week. The two toughest impose average sentences double that.

The findings are troubling, said the author of the study, Ryan W. Scott, an associate professor at Indiana University’s Maurer School of Law, because they raise the specter of defendants getting markedly different punishments depending on the politics and biases of the judges before whom they appear.

See also this discussion at Sentencing Law Blog.

Access the Stanford Law Review article here.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 20, 2010 02:10 PM
Posted to Courts in general