Teaching Blakely

I am busy preparing for the first session of my Criminal Punishment & Sentencing class here at Ohio State this afternoon — yeah, I cannot believe we start so early, either — and I am working through how to handle Blakely.

Fortunately, the casebook I helped co-author, Sentencing Law and Policy: Cases, Statutes and Guidelines, which was published by Aspen Publishers earlier this year, does not focus exclusively or even excessively on structured sentencing reforms. Consequently, I am fairly confident that Blakely will not require me to radically alter the way I teach this course. (Indeed, right now only perhaps parts of two chapters need to be significantly tweaked because of Blakely.)

But, obviously, the world of criminal punishment and sentencing is much different today than it was two months ago, and thus I feel I am about to embark on a 14-week Blakely-impacted teaching experiment. Moreover, these realities have me wondering how others gearing up for fall classes are working through these issues. Of course, any and every sentencing course must figure out what to do with Blakely, but what about more general courses on criminal law and criminal procedure?

I am eager to hear from colleagues (ideally in the comments) about Blakely teaching plans.