Another report about jury involvement in federal sentencing

With thanks to Marcia Oddi at the Indiana Law Blog for the tip, this article in Monday’s Munster Times discusses a recent (apparently positive) experience with a “sentencing jury” in an Indiana federal district court.  Though specific details about the sentencing proceeding are sketchy, the article suggests that the jury in a high-profile public fraud, like the jury in the recently concluded Enron Nigerian barge case (details here and here), reached a compromise sentencing “verdict” on the facts.  Moreover, the article reinforces my suggestion here that a decision in Booker and Fanfan applying Blakely to the federal system might be positively perceived by the press and public as an appropriate vindication of the role of juries in the criminal justice system.