Blakely cases continue making headlines

There is plenty of discussion of Blakely in the many Supreme Court preview articles that are a tradition every year around this time. Interesting recent examples of the genre can be found here and here and here, and many more such articles will surely be appearing over the next few days.

But while most of us focus on the Supreme Court and what it might say Blakely means for federal law, state courts must keep processing cases which seem indisputably impacted by Blakely. Local news stories such as this this piece from Alaska concerning a manslaughter conviction of a child-care worker reinforce that Blakely is such a blockbuster in part because it has a potential impact on so many cases in so many jurisdictions. Relatedly, this article discusses the recent report of the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission on Blakely's impact on cases in Minnesota (previously discussed here and here).

And, finally, from the "do not believe everything you read department," I chuckled when I saw this article discussing "Blakely v. Washington, a Pennsylvania case that could affect sentencing guidelines." You would think seeing Washington in the case name might have helped the fact-checker on this one.