Today marks 30 years of federal sentencing under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. The Guidelines were intended to promote uniformity and certainty in sentencing while providing punishment proportional to the offense of conviction. Since then, over 1.7 million people have been sentenced to over 6.5 million YEARS of prison, which is to say nothing of the
On October 30, 2017, the 11th Circuit vacated and remanded a 60-month sentence in United States v. Mathews. In Mathews, the defendant, a VA nurse, altered medical records to cover up his lack of care for a veteran recovering from surgery. The veteran ultimately died as a result. The defendant pleaded guilty. While on pretrial release, the
In this presentation, we review the Manafort indictment, provide an estimated U.S. Sentencing Guidelines calculation, and provide a sentencing analysis based on U.S. Sentencing Commission data.
The impact of America’s punishment policies is often measured in numbers: there are now 2.2 million people in our jails and prisons; one in a hundred and fifteen adults is confined behind bars; our inmate population is four times larger than it was in 1980. “We Are Witnesses,” a collection of short videos, offers a
This Saturday, October 28, 2017, the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day addresses a crucial public safety and public health issue. According to the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6.4 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs. The study shows that a majority of abused prescription drugs were obtained from family and friends,
On Monday, October 23, 2017, distinguished members of the Judiciary, past and present Commissioners, and leading scholars commemorated the original U.S. Sentencing Commission and marked the 30th Anniversary of the Sentencing Guidelines at the Hofstra University Club.
PITTSBURGH -A former Fayette County resident has been sentenced in federal court to 12 months and one day of imprisonment on her conviction of escaping from federal custody following a prior federal felony conviction, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, Acting United States Attorney Soo C. Song announced today. United States District
Earlier today, the U.S. Sentencing Commission published an updated report on mandatory minimum penalties for drug offenders. The comprehensive report surveys recent sentencing trends for drug offenders subject to mandatory minimum penalties, as well as the impact such penalties have had on the Bureau of Prisons’ inmate population. Among the key findings was the impact
Sometimes the law is wrong even when it is right. Or, in the words of Judge Guido Calabresi, sometimes an otherwise substantively reasonable sentence can still be “absurd.” In United States v. Jones, 15-1518 (2d Cir. Oct. 5, 2017), the a “mentally deficient” defendant with an I.Q. of 69, appealed his 180-month sentence for biting the