Once again Judge Gertner has presented a noteworthy analysis of an important sentencing issue. In this Sentencing Memorandum she gave a detailed explanation of some of the principles and parameters behind sentencing departures based on U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3. That section, entitled “Adequacy of Criminal History Category,” permits a sentencing judge …

Once again, Judge Gertner of the D.Mass. has firmly rejected a Government attempt to allow it to seize virtual control over the sentencing process - here by attempting to engineer a dramatically increased sentence based on facts which, she concluded, bore “little relation to the allegations in the indictment, the …

This is a case that shows the importance of staying on top of the inordinately complex rules that often apply when district courts attempt to use “relevant conduct” and uncharged crimes as a means of enhancing sentences. The defendants in this case were members of a labor coalition known as …

Here the Court reversed a district court decision and held that a felon convicted or rape does not have a constitutional right to have access to, and to test, DNA evidence used at his trial, simply because he contends the new tests would exonerate him.

In 1990, the plaintiff in …

In this case, the Supreme Court set some loose limits on the growing state practice of keeping sexual predators in extended civil confinement after their criminal sentences expire - holding that a state must show that a sexual offender lacks some ability to control his violent behavior to justify confining …

This habeas decision will probably not long be remembered for its holding: it was so fact-specific that it will have little, if any, precedential value. But the case will certainly be remembered for two other reasons: First, for the first time in our memory, Justice Rehnquist voted in favor of …