going to sentence you to the same anyway. defendants and the public, the families of the defendants understandably say that seems unfair. i thought the point of the jury trial was to determine whether i was guilt kri or ny or not guil of those charges and i am getting sentenced as if i was guilty on all the charges. it seems like a violation of due process. so i ve written about the fairness or the use of perceived fairness of acquitted conduct at sentencing. judge molette on my court and i have both written about it several times and made clear our concern about the use of a quilted conduct and how it affects the sentencing system. why i ve said congress might need to look at it, although i ve also pointed out individual district judges can look at it, is because under the current system sentencing judges have
person to a long prison term flies in the face of a right to a jury trial. you ve written that you believe, quote, it likely will take some combination of congress and the sentencing commission to systematically change federal sentencing to preclude use of an acquitted or uncharged conduct, unquote. why do you take issue with the use of acquitted conduct at sentencing and why do you believe this is an issue that will likely require intervention by congress to resolve? the opinions i ve written on this, and i ve written several, say in essence the following, senator. when a criminal defendant, for example, let s say, is charged with ten counts, let s suppose, and is acquitted on nine and convicted on one and then the criminal defendant is sentenced as if he or she has been convicted of all ten because the judge just says, well, i think, you know, you did x or y, i m
in looking around saying here s what i m focused on, here s what i m going to ask you at the hearings and it turns out you were telling you were accurately telling me your concerns. but anybody hand you anything marked highly confidential about any one of these senators? no, i m not remembering in like that, but you all did talk about theish use. in other words, there are no surprises. well, there are not no surprises but, you know, you gave me basic concerns. i want to make sure you understand this. nobody handed you material marked confidential but that is the material you received from miranda. days before an extremely controversial hearing for fifth circuit nominee priscilla owen, mr. miranda sent you an e-mail with the subject line highly