Holiday season highlights

I am off to the big law professors' conference in San Francisco (details here) this afternoon, which likely means no more blogging today and light blogging until next week.  For anyone interested in using this break to catch up on notable sentencing developments from the holiday season, here's a list of some major posts of note from the last two weeks:

Federal Blakely issues

• CJ Rehnquist sets notable themes for 2005
• Highlights of a remarkable USSC document
• The WSJ on the federal Blakely mess
• A Blakely Festivus for the rest of us

State Blakely issues

• More Blakely state reports
• The state of Blakely in various states
• Blakely's Hawaiian punch

Death Penalty

• Reviewing the death penalty nationwide and in one California case
• A January comeback for the death penalty?
• The death penalty coming and going
• Contrasting capital reconsiderations

Clemency and Pardons

• The capital story of clemency
• Interesting state pardon stories
• The Washington Post on Bush's pardons
• Bush's stingy pardon practice
• More pardon buzz

Also, for anyone interested in (yet again) gearing up for a possible decision in Booker and Fanfan next week, here are some of my prior "pre-decision" posts:

• 'twas the morning before Booker?
• Here we go again
• Gearing up for Booker and Fanfan
• Booker and Fanfan pre-reading guide

And, lots of additional posts of note and other background materials on Blakely and Booker and Fanfan can also be found on my Blakely Basics page.