A jury acquitted Dayonta McClinton and others of various charges, but they served prison time for them anyway. The practice that allows this may soon end.
Sentencing Law and Policy
Federal Sentencing Reporter issue considers After Trump: The Future of the President’s Pardon Power
It strikes me as a great bit of great timing, as we head into a weekend celebrating our great nation s declaration of independence from a monarchy, that the new issue of the
Federal Sentencing Reporter focused on the pardon power in the US Constitution is just now available online. It is often said that the presidential pardon authority in Article II section 2 of the Constitution is the most kingly power given to our chief executive, and former Prez Donald Trump certainly seemed at times to bring a mad King George quality to his activities in this arena. Notably, as explained in the intro to this June 2021 issue of
SCOTUSblog flags three notable new sentencing cert petitions
Last year around this time, I expressed my sense that it has been quite some time since the Supreme Court has taken up a really big and interesting sentencing case. This post from near the end of last year s SCOTUS Term, titled Do others sense that SCOTUS has become particularly (and problematically?) quiet on sentencing matters? , captured this zeitgeist. In the year since, we have gotten a few notable sentencing rulings (on juve LWOP in
Jones and on ACCA predicates in
Borden, but these decisions are more clarifications than game-changers.
I review these broad realities not just because we are approaching the close of another SCOTUS Term, but also because SCOTUSblog has this new post spotlighting three new cert petitions that could each lead to a significant sentencing ruling. Here some details from a post worth reading in full: