Proportionality and Parole
Commentators analyzing the Supreme Court’s watershed decision in Graham v. Florida, which prohibited sentences of life without parole for juveniles… Continue reading →
Issue 6
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The New Civil Death: Rethinking Punishment in the Era of Mass Conviction
Borrowing from its English forebears, the United States once had a form of punishment called civil death. Civil death extinguished… Continue reading →
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Why Proportionality Matters
The Supreme Court decided recently in Graham v. Florida that the Eighth Amendment prohibits a sentence of life in prison… Continue reading →
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Sentencing: A Role for Empathy
Is empathy an important trait for a judge? Is there a role for empathy in the law? What about the… Continue reading →
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On Competence, Legitimacy, and Proportionality
I asked Justice Aharon Barak, then president of the Israeli Supreme Court, why he considered himself competent to decide where… Continue reading →
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Sentencing Guidelines at the Crossroads of Politics and Expertise
When Minnesota created the first sentencing commission in 1978 and the first sentencing guidelines in 1980, it was hard to… Continue reading →
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Booker Rules
In United States v. Booker, the Supreme Court excised two provisions of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 (SRA) that… Continue reading →