Number: RL32573
Title: United States Sentencing Guidelines and the Supreme Court: Booker, Fanfan, Blakely, Apprendi, and Mistretta
Authors: Charles Doyle, American Law Division 
Abstract: Sentencing in federal court is governed by the United States Sentencing Guidelines. The Supreme Court has upheld the Guidelines in the face of arguments that they constituted an unconstitutional delegation of authority and an affront to the separation of powers. Thereafter, the Court held that due process and the right to a criminal jury trial require that any fact (other than the fact of a prior conviction) that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the statutory maximum must be submitted to the jury and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. And for this reason, the Court, in Blakely v. Washington, found constitutionally wanting a state sentence imposed by operation of a legislative sentencing guideline procedure even though the final sentence fell beneath the maximum penalty assigned to the crime of conviction. Now in Booker and Fanfan the Court has agreed to decide what impact these principles have on the federal Sentencing Guidelines.
Pages: 25
Date: March 21, 2005