Morning media blitz

As previously predicted, the Supreme Court’s cert. grants have ensured that the fourth estate is really paying attention to Blakely. Proof of this comes from the fact that Howard Bashman over at How Appealing needed two posts, here and here, to collect all the recent Blakely stories.

Some highlights from these articles include an observation in this Boston Globe article from Fanfan’s lawyer Martin Weinberg, who said “that the Supreme Court’s decision to take the two cases is expected to ‘freeze’ sentencing in federal courts nationwide, because judges and lawyers will want to see what the court does before relying on the federal guidelines.” Showing Weinberg’s insight, this interesting article discusses the recent decison by Indiana US Attorney Joseph Van Bokkelen to ask “the U.S. District Court judges in Hammond, South Bend and Fort Wayne to halt all scheduled sentencings until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the fairness of current sentencing guidelines.” According to the article, “defense lawyers whose clients would be affected by a sentencing delay [have been asked] to comment on Van Bokkelen’s petition by Aug. 12.”

I was fortunate to have a chance to speak with Melissa Block of NPR about Blakely issues for Monday’s broadcast of All Things Considered. Here’s a link to that story.