Week in review

The week ahead has the exciting sentencing events of oral argument in Ohio's Blakely cases and a Booker panel at the ACS conference, and I suspect the buzzing over the nomination of John Roberts will continue at a fever pitch.  (My major posts exploring how a Justice Roberts might impact the Supreme Court's criminal sentencing jurisprudence are all linked here, and a related article is discussed here.)   And the week just completed, as detailed below, included other noteworthy sentencing developments.

LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• Alabama House seeks mandatory castration(!) for certain sex offenders
• Sex offender panic continues in Alabama
• Romney's "foolproof" death penalty looking foolish in Massachusetts
• More interesting criticism of HR 1528
• Insightful commentary on the Sensenbrenner flap
• Two more editorials assailing Sensenbrenner's letters

BOOKER DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• Updated post-Booker data from the USSC
• More updated post-Booker data from the USSC
• Trying to parse the USSC's latest data
• Seventh Circuit give short shrift to Booker ex post facto claim
• Fifth Circuit finds "Fanfan error" not harmless
• Points for creativity?

OTHER CIRCUIT COURT DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• Interesting opinion on "sentencing factor manipulation"
• Second Circuit notes "tension" between supervised release scheme and Blakely
• Fourth Circuit provides spirited defense of the prior conviction exception
• Fifth Circuit vacates death sentence
• Criminal history and Shepard's impact
• Sentencing and searching in the Seventh Circuit

OTHER SENTENCING DEVELOPMENTS AND COMMENTARY

• "Getting out early" through a federal drug program
• Collateral consequences guide
• An overview of Blakely in the states