Criminal law practitioners have quite a bit of reading today as the Supreme Court decided two mammoth cases -- Gall v. United States and Kimbrough v. United States. In a nutshell, the cases are huge victories for district judges, criminal defense lawyers and their clients. The decisions reaffirm that district judges have wide discretion in sentencing defendants and that the guidelines are really just advisory. Judges are free to disagree with them (as the judge did in Kimbrough with the 100-1 crack disparity) and appellate courts are to defer to the district courts unless they abuse their discretion in sentencing. It will be interesting to see how district judges use their discretion now that the Supreme Court has said it really really means it.
In other sentencing news, Michael Vick got 23 months. Almost two years for a first-time offender with no prior history... Thoughts?
For all your sentencing news, the best place to go is www.sentencing.typepad.com and for the Supreme Court news, go to www.scotusblog.com
The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com
2 comments:
I've got the copy of the Kimbrough opinion lined up and ready to go right behind my mandatory perusal of the NY Post, the Daily Racing Form, "Perfect 10" magazine, and TMZ.com. I should get to it by the first of never.
Looks like the Eleventh Circuit got this one wrong, except for Judge Barkett.
http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/ops/200513205.enb.pdf
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