Sentencing — Judges — Galsworthy Criminal Justice Reform Program

Galsworthy Criminal Justice Reform Program

Judges

Defendants are regularly condemned to years, decades, or life in prison for minor infractions because of minimum sentencing statutes. If judges had more discretion in sentencing, then sentences could be more proportional to the crime, more specific to the individual defendant, and minimize the negative impact of minimum sentencing laws without inherently needing those laws repealed.

Posts in Sentencing

Americans Now Support Life in Prison Over Death Penalty

“For the first time in Gallup's 34-year trend, a majority of Americans say that life imprisonment with no possibility of parole is a better punishment for murder than the death penalty is. The 60% to 36% advantage for life imprisonment marks a shift from the past two decades, when Americans were mostly divided in their views of the better punishment for murder. During the 1980s and 1990s, consistent majorities thought the death penalty was the better option for convicted murderers.“

Gallup

November 25, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesNovember 25, 2019Gallup, Death Penalty, Life without paroleComment

Why 1,200 people who never took a life are condemned to die in Pa. prisons. | Editorial

“An editorial board analysis of data from the Office of the Lt. Governor shows that the 1,166 felony murder lifers are almost exclusively men (96%), mostly black (70%), and half are from Philadelphia. The population is also aging. The average felony murder lifer starts their sentence at age 24; the average age of the lifers currently in prison is 48 — with the oldest condemned being 88 years old. About half of second-degree lifers have already served two decades. A quarter already served three.“

Philadelphia Inquirer

November 17, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesNovember 17, 2019Philadelphia Inquirer, Felony murderComment

Louisiana Prosecutors Push to Retain Nonunanimous Jury Verdicts

“In 2018, the state’s voters approved a constitutional amendment that requires unanimous jury verdicts in felony cases for crimes committed on or after Jan. 1, 2019. Now, the Supreme Court is considering the constitutionality of the nonunanimity rule—with prosecutors arguing that the U.S. Constitution does not require unanimous jury verdicts in criminal cases.“

The Appeal

November 15, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesNovember 15, 2019The Appeal, LouisianaComment

Why Juries Needs Expert Help Assessing Jailhouse Information

“But all too often, jurors get it wrong. Over 45 percent of innocent people on death row were convicted because of a lying criminal informant, according to a 2004 report from Northwestern University School of Law. “That makes snitches the leading cause of wrongful convictions in U.S. capital cases,” the report concluded. We know this because dozens of innocent defendants in these serious cases were eventually exonerated after jurors erroneously believed informant testimony.“

The Appeal

September 23, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesSeptember 23, 2019The AppealComment

Why America Needs to Break Its Addiction to Long Prison Sentences

“That is why if we want to significantly reduce the number of people this country incarcerates, legislation is needed at the federal level and in every state to allow everyone after a certain period in prison the opportunity to seek sentence reductions. Sentence review legislation recognizes that as we have increased the length of prison sentences and limited the ability to obtain release, our prisons have become overwhelmed with people whose current conduct proves further incarceration is not in the public interest.“

Politico

September 3, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesSeptember 5, 2019PoliticoComment

Is giving judges more discretion in sentencing the right reform? Lawmakers to decide

“The starting point of the deliberations is a stack of recommendations from a state commission that would give judges more discretion in how they sentence adults convicted of felonies. The change could help the state reduce its reliance on incarceration and move more toward rehabilitation of offenders. The goal of overhauling the criminal sentencing law is to improve the system by simplifying it, but there are key questions looming for lawmakers, said Rep. Roger Goodman, the Kirkland Democrat who is chairman of the House Public Safety Committee.“

The Olympian

August 25, 2019

Judges, SentencingPhillip ReevesAugust 25, 2019The Olympian, WashingtonComment

Can Racist Algorithms Be Fixed?

“Their findings were almost exactly the same as ProPublica’s. Among those who were not re-arrested, almost a quarter of black defendants were classified as high-risk—which would have likely meant awaiting trial in jail—compared with 17 percent of Hispanic defendants, and just 10 percent of white defendants.“

The Marshall Project

July 1, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesJuly 1, 2019The Marshall Project, Risk Assessment, Center for Court InnovationComment

Commentary: Bias in law enforcement in a complicated matter

“Implicit bias occurs when we make decisions that unknowingly rely on our implicit associations, the subconscious assumptions or stereotypes we all hold. Implicit associations are a result of two things: 1) our brains are hardwired to use shortcuts to make the many decisions required of us each day, and 2) we live in a particular time, place and culture. “

Salt Lake Tribune

May 20, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesMay 20, 2019Salt Lake Tribune, Utah, JPECComment

'Incarceration survivor' vows to add missing perspective to Minnesota's sentencing commission

“"I say that I'm an incarceration survivor," Honsey said. The 42-year-old St. Paul woman has since found sobriety and built a deep résumé as a criminal justice reformer, a different type of record that led Gov. Tim Walz to put her on the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission.“

Minnesota Star Tribune

May 6, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesMay 6, 2019Minnesota, Minnesota Star TribuneComment

U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider split jury verdicts, prompted by New Orleans case

“The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will reconsider whether felony defendants in state court can be convicted by divided juries, a move that has the potential to rewrite decades of precedent and affect an untold number of cases in the two states that have allowed it: Louisiana and Oregon.“

The New Orleans Advocate

March 18, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesMarch 18, 2019The Advocate, New Orleans, SCOTUSComment

Reformers Target Life Imprisonment and Sentences of Life Without Parole

“If Vermont or Massachusetts adopted such proposals, they would be the first state to effectively bar life without parole sentences. All states but Alaska allow sentences of life without parole, and Alaska’s 99-year sentence is the functional equivalent. Last year, Pennsylvania state Senator Sharif Street launched a similar push by proposing that people serving a life sentence should be eligible for parole, but his bill did not move forward.“

The Appeal

February 28, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesFebruary 28, 2019The Appeal, Life without paroleComment

Mentally Ill Prisoners Are Held Past Release Dates, Lawsuit Claims

‘On paper, a 31-year-old man found to have serious mental illnesses was released from a New York state prison in September 2017 after serving 10 years behind bars for two robberies. But in reality, the man, who asked to be identified by his initials C.J., still wakes up each day inside a maximum-security prison in Stormville. Though he is technically free, he is still confined to a cell because of a Kafkaesque bureaucratic dilemma: The state requires people like him to be released to a supportive housing facility, but there is not one available.‘

New York Times

January 23, 2019

SentencingPhillip ReevesJanuary 23, 2019New YorkComment

What can be done to ensure that federal sentencing remains transparent?

“At the end of the day, encouraging or discouraging cooperation is not the business of federal judges. That is the executive branch’s role. Judges constitute an independent branch of government with distinctive responsibilities. Our charge is to sentence convicted defendants fairly, based on all the facts and circumstances and the law, and to explain as clearly as possible to the public, the defendant and the victims how we reach the sentence we pronounce.“

American Bar Association

December 12, 2018

SentencingPhillip ReevesDecember 12, 2018American Bar AssociationComment

Florida Passed A Hugely Important Amendment to Allow Lawmakers to Reduce Criminal Sentences

“Florida was the only state with a constitutional ban on reducing past criminal sentences, until Tuesday, when voters approved Amendment 11 by 62 percent, just over the 60 percent threshold for ballot measures in the state. The measure contained three bundled constitutional amendments, one of which repealed an 1885 provision in the Florida constitution known as the "Savings Clause" that banned the state legislature from making retroactive changes to criminal sentencing laws.“

Reason Magazine

November 9, 2018

SentencingPhillip ReevesNovember 9, 2018Reason Magazine, Florida, Amendment 11Comment

House leader plans effort to overturn Oregon's 'racist' non-unanimous jury law

“Lawmakers plan to introduce two bills in 2019 in an effort to overturn Oregon's non-unanimous jury law, Jennifer Williamson, D-Portland, told The Oregonian/OregonLive. The first would seek a legislative fix to the law that allows juries in most felony cases — aside from murder — to convict defendants with a 10-2 vote, she said. The second would refer the issue to voters, who would then decide whether to overturn an amendment in the state constitution enacted more than eight decades ago.“

The Oregonian

November 8, 2018

SentencingPhillip ReevesNovember 8, 2018The Oregonian, OregonComment

For some, Louisiana’s vote on unanimous juries is personal

“Louisiana is one of only two states -- the other is Oregon -- that don’t require unanimous juries for all felony convictions, and it’s the only state where a jury that isn’t unanimous can send a person to prison for the rest of their life.“

NOLA News

November 5, 2018

SentencingPhillip ReevesNovember 5, 2018NOLA News, LouisianaComment

2 Harris County judges responsible for 1 in 5 children sent to state juvenile prisons

“Both the 313th and 314th Juvenile District Courts — overseen by Devlin and Phillips, respectively — sent at least two times as many kids to TJJD last year as they did in 2014, while Scheider’s 315th District Court sent 1.4 times as many as before. Phillips, who had the highest incarceration numbers of the three, sent 88 kids to juvenile prison last year while Schneider, on the low end, sent 36.“

Houston Chronicle

October 20, 2018

SentencingPhillip ReevesOctober 24, 2018Houston Chronicle, Harris County, Houston, TexasComment

People Are Convicted Based on One Witness All The Time

“If the very idea that someone could suffer consequences due only to the testimony of a single victim is in fact an outrage, certainly the consequence of ending up incarcerated is far more damaging than the consequence of not getting a job.“

Splinter News

September 27, 2018

False Convictions, SentencingPhillip ReevesSeptember 28, 2018Splinter NewsComment

'Will I Get Out Today?'

“Most is representing four other Louisianans who were held far beyond 48 hours past their release dates without input from a judge. No one knows how many people are sitting in jails or prisons across the state past their sentence, in part because no agency bothers to collect the data.“

The Appeal

September 26, 2018

SentencingPhillip ReevesSeptember 28, 2018The Appeal, LouisianaComment

Racial disparities plague Pennsylvania’s life-without-parole system — but can it be fixed?

“Over the past year, Street, a Democrat from North Philadelphia, has been telling anyone who will listen that a change is overdue. Pennsylvania's murder rate ranks 25th in the nation. Yet, courts in the state sentence people to life without parole at a rate that's among the highest in the country, and more than double the national average. Street introduced a bill last year that would allow lifers to be considered for parole after 15 years — a move that would make 64 percent of lifers eligible for that consideration.“

Philadelphia Inquirer

September 18, 2018

SentencingPhillip ReevesSeptember 19, 2018Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania, Life without paroleComment