Interesting state sentencing items in the papers

Two newspaper pieces concerning state sentencing guidelines caught my eye this morning:

• From Indiana, this editorial expresses concerns about the Blakely fix (or perhaps it should be called the Smylie fix, basics here, commentary here and here) being considered by the Indiana legislature.  Marcia Oddi at the Indiana Law Blog has some discussion of the piece and links to the legislation at this post.

• From Virginia, this article details that "Republican candidates for state attorney general sparred over criminal sentencing guidelines and qualifications during a debate on Tuesday."  Interestingly, as the article details, the debate over guidelines was apparently triggered by "a question about a decline in the number of jury trials."