Minnesota’s Commission Speaks

Post from Ron:
This afternoon the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission conveyed its Blakely report to the Minnesota Governor. Here is a link to the report. And here is the money quote:

The recent Blakely v. Washington decision directly impacts neither the constitutionality nor the structure of the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines. However, the decision does affect certain sentencing procedures pertaining to aggravated departures and specific sentence enhancements that will need to be modified to meet the constitutionality issues identified under Blakely. Those procedures can be corrected, as demonstrated by the state of Kansas, who addressed this very issue in 2001, with limited impact on the criminal justice system as a whole. The impact of Blakely on sentencing in Minnesota, while temporarily disruptive, is limited in scope and can be addressed within the current sentencing guidelines scheme.

I come to sentencing questions with a keen interest for state systems, since the state courts (collectively) process far more defendants than the federal courts and offer more interesting and hopeful variety in their solutions to problems of crime and justice. So you’ll be hearing more from me about this Minnesota report after I’ve read it. In the meantime, you’ve now got your own copy to peruse. What do you think?