Major sentencing developments for second half of 2005

My assembly (via posts of note) of sentencing highlights the first half of the 2005 was, not surprisingly, dominated by the Booker decision and its aftermath.  The highlights from the second half of 2005 show more variety, particularly because of the SCOTUS transitions:

JULY

• Justice O'Connor retiring; what will her replacement think of Harris and Almendarez-Torres?
• Considering O'Connor's capital sentencing legacy
• Judge Roberts round-up
• Huge Blakely day in North Carolina
• The evolution of white-collar sentencing
• Sentencing from the halls of Congress
• Judicial federalism: diverse state high court Blakely rulings
• Alabama House seeks mandatory castration(!) for certain sex offenders
• Iowa Supreme Court upholds broad sex offender residency restrictions
• Trying to parse the USSC's latest data

AUGUST

• An engaging (but incomplete) habeas debate
• Justice Stevens speaks out against death penalty
• Judge Roberts on capital punishment
• Roberts, the cert pool, and sentencing jurisprudence
• Pondering the next SCOTUS Blakely/Booker case
• DOJ's Orwellian defense of mandatory minimum guidelines
• Brave New Justice and sentencing issues
• Reefer madness in the 8th Circuit
• District court tonic for the Booker blues
• A post-Booker burden of proof primer

SEPTEMBER

• CJ Rehnquist has died
• The current SCOTUS sentencing head-count
• Roberts nominated to be Chief
• Can Roberts bring consensus to SCOTUS sentencing jurisprudence?
• Assailing the lack of criminal justice questions at the Roberts hearing
• FSR Issue asks: Is a Booker Fix Needed?
• Is the Booker remedy here to stay?
• Invigorating the sentencing process after Booker
• Some September sentencing highlights

OCTOBER

• Fantastic NY Times piece on lifers
• A bit of Booker fix buzz
• My Booker data "wish list"
• What will a Justice Harriet Miers mean for sentencing jurisprudence?
• Miers, religion, and criminal justice issues
• First opinion of Roberts Court is a win for a criminal defendant! On habeas!
• SCOTUS taking up Blakely harmless error issue!
• State Blakely mess: the split over Blakely's application to presumptive sentencing
• Does Blakely draw a bright line? What is that line?
• Miers is out, who's next?
• Alito it is ... this should get interesting

NOVEMBER

• Why some defendants hope Alito is like Scalia
• A terrific examination of Alito and criminal law
• American cultures of life and cultures of death
• Tenth Circuit argument in Angelos mandatory minimum case
• Did Texas execute an innocent man?
• More buzzing about possible wrongful execution(s)
• December dramas for the death penalty
• Ground zero for post-Booker crack/powder debate

DECEMBER

• Pondering Tookie's fate, Schwarzenegger's dilemma and punishment theory
• Schwarzenegger denies Tookie Williams clemency
• Death sentences continue to decline
• Further exploration of question "Is Capital Punishment Morally Required?"
• The number 1,000,000 in sentencing perspective
• Booker discussion topic: are departures obsolete?
• A Booker Festivus for the rest of us
• Recapping a busy first half of the last month of 2005
• More academic arguments for Blakely retroactivity
• Latest FSR issue on Blakely in the States
• Blakely at 18 months: a recap of state high court rulings