Booker and Booker, round 2

The Wisconsin State Journal had this terrific article reporting on Freddie Booker's resentencing in which, as discussed here, he received the same 30-year sentence that he initially received.  The article reports that Freddie Booker plans to appeal again.  I suspect he will argue that a 30-year sentence for an aging non-violent drug offender is "greater than necessary" to serve the purposes of punishment.

The article incudes a nice overview of the state of Booker in the federal courts, and emphasizes the variation in sentencing approaches we are seeing even within one state:

Even between Wisconsin's two federal court districts, the contrast in the effect of the Booker case on sentencing can be stark.  Chip Burke, senior litigator for Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, which represents indigent clients, said judges in Wisconsin's Eastern District, headquartered in Milwaukee, have mostly embraced the Booker decision and used their discretion to grant shorter sentences than what federal guidelines have suggested — sometimes even less than what prosecutors and defense attorneys have recommended....

Meanwhile, in the Madison-based Western District, some attorneys complain that [Judge] Shabaz [who sentenced Booker] and Judge Barbara Crabb aren't thinking about whether the guidelines are excessive.