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From Booker to Spears

BY Stuart Chanen
April 24, 2009

Chief Justice Roberts commented in a recent dissent that the Supreme Court's sentencing rulings “have given the lower courts a good deal to digest over a relatively short period.” Indeed. Since its landmark holding in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), that the Sentencing Guidelines were simply advisory, the Court has swiftly and significantly diminished the relevance of the Guidelines and increased the discretion of district court judges in sentencing defendants. As a result, the defense bar has been given vital tools in advocating on behalf of its clients.

Booker, Rita, Kimbrough, Gall, and Spears

In Booker, the Supreme Court found that the then-mandatory Guidelines conflicted with Sixth Amendment requirements and remedied that conflict by excising from the Sentencing Reform Act the provision that made the Guidelines mandatory, thereby making the Guidelines “effectively advisory.” Following Booker, sentencing judges are supposed to impose a sentence sufficient ' but not greater than necessary ' to accomplish the goals of sentencing after a consideration of seven factors, only one of which is the applicable Guideline range. The Booker Court also held that because the Act's appeals-related section (18 U.S.C. ' 3742(e)) contained cross-references to the unconstitutional mandatory-application provision, the appropriate standard of appellate review for every sentence would be “reasonableness.”

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