Sentencing Posts

The Model Penal Code Goes to Congress: Sentence Reduction for Compelling Reasons

The Model Penal Code: Sentencing (MPC) is not specifically designed or intended to influence sentencing in the federal system, although the MPC itself often reflects the influence of federal law. In one recent case, the influence of one upon the other appears mutual: an MPC provision modeled on a federal statute authorizing reduction of prison sentences may have been at least indirectly responsible for changing its federal model. The change at issue, discussed below, reinforces the fundamental tenet of the MPC that courts should have primary responsibility for determining sentences, as opposed to legislatures or corrections officials.

Modification of Long Term Prison Sentences

Below is the Black Letter from the Proposed Final Draft of Model Penal Code: Sentencing, which was approved at the 2017 Annual Meeting.  The project Reporters are now preparing the Institute’s official text for publication. The Reporters are authorized to correct and update citations and other references, to make editorial and stylistic improvements, and to implement any remaining substantive changes agreed to during discussion with the membership or by motions approved at the Annual Meetings. When published the Sections are being reorganized, Section 305.6 will become Section 11.02, and it will appear in an Appendix titled, “Principles for Legislations.”

Common Law: The Innocence Update

Common Law is a new podcast sponsored by UVA School of Law and hosted by Dean Risa Goluboff and Vice Dean Leslie Kendrick. In Episode One, best-selling author John Grisham and Deirdre Enright of the UVA Innocence Project discuss the many reasons for wrongful convictions, the future of criminal law, and delve into specifics of some the cases they’ve shined a light on.

The Decline of the Death Penalty

The death penalty in the United States, both new convictions and executions, has declined through recent decades. In this episode of Reasonably Speaking, we explore the history of the death penalty and the various factors that are contributing to this decline.

Misdemeanors: Why One Lawyer Says They’re Making America More Unequal

In a story from The Take Away, a podcast supported by New York Public Radio, Alexandra Natapoff of the UC Irvine School of Law discusses the position she presents in her new book Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps the Innocent and Makes American More Unequal.

Several Roads to Decarceration, All of Which Should Be Taken

As the year comes to a close, it is undeniably true that criminal justice reform is in the air. The federal First Step Act, even with critics on the left and right, heralds a less punitive approach than the “get tough on crime” policies of the past several decades. Recent elections yielded a number of prosecutors swept into office on platforms focused on confronting racial disparities and rethinking approaches to low-level offenses.