Recapping a busy first half of the last month of 2005

This marks my 2500th post since I started this blog a little over 18 months ago, and if I had the time I might assemble a comprehensive greatest hits list.  (My first quaint post on Blakely — Blakely..... WOW!! — would surely make the list.)  But, this busy time of year, I barely have time to assemble just some of the highlights from the first few weeks of an exciting December in the world of sentencing:

STATE BLAKELY DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• Minnesota Supreme Court limits reach of "prior conviction" exception
• Indiana Supreme Court gives broad interpretation to prior conviction exception
• Great Alaska opinion on Blakely and consecutive sentencing
• More academic arguments for Blakely retroactivity
• Notable new paper on voluntary guidelines
• Latest FSR issue on Blakely in the States

BOOKER CIRCUIT DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• Further reports on 1st Circuit crack/cocaine argument
• Second Circuit upholds sentencing based on acquitted conduct
• Interesting Second Circuit ruling on use of unadjudicated juvenile conduct
• Fifth Circuit officially rejects retroactive application of Booker
• A reasonableness two for Tuesday from the 7th Circuit
• Eighth Circuit speaks to post-Booker reliance on hearsay at sentencing
• Big sentencing doings in the Ninth Circuit
• Tenth Circuit addresses Booker and fast-track issues
• Eleventh Circuit opines at length about post-Booker sentencing and review
• Two Booker pipeline cases of note from the DC Circuit

OTHER BOOKER DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• Interesting discussion of fast-track disparities
• Booker discussion topic: are departures obsolete?
• Interesting Olis developments
• A white-collar sentencing in scarlet and gray
• Interesting sentencing developments in HealthSouth case
• A more formal request for more post-Booker data
• Oh data, data, data, I now have lots of clay...

DEATH PENALTY DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• December dramas for the death penalty
• Capital reading to mark a "grand" milestone
• Debating religion and the death penalty
• Pondering Tookie's fate, Schwarzenegger's dilemma and punishment theory
• Schwarzenegger denies Tookie Williams clemency
• The death penalty debate continues on...
• New Jersey death penalty moratorium in the works
• White paper critical of Alito's death penalty work

OTHER SENTENCING DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• Important work on drug sentencing in New Jersey
• NJ Commission releases major report on drug-free zones
• New report on NY reform of Rockefeller drug laws
• In praise of Slate's recent sentencing coverage
• The number 1,000,000 in sentencing perspective