Blakely analysis and insights for ALI’s sentencing project

As many readers may know, the American Law Institute has been working for the last few years, under the leadership of Professor Kevin R. Reitz as Reporter, on revising the (long-out-of-date) sentencing provisions of the Model Penal Code. (You can read here about the ALI’s basic (pre-Blakely) plans for revision, and note here all the amazing people involved in the project. UPDATE: Kevin has noted that the “Plan for Revision” (linked above) was itself updated and revised in the April 2003 “Model Penal Code Sentencing: Report” presented at the ALI’s annual meeting and available here.)

Needless to say, Blakely has disrupted the on-going work of the ALI, although the need for model sentencing legislation really becomes even more acute in the wake of Blakely. A few weeks ago, Kevin Reitz prepared a “Report to the Council” for the ALI as an early discussion paper to help explain the impact and import of Blakely and to help identify particularly the problems that Blakely may create for effective reform in state sentencing systems.

This discussion paper, which Kevin has graciously made available for posting here, does a wonderful job explaining the many open and interesting questions that the Blakely line of cases pose (some of which are also noted in my “Conceptualizing Blakely” article here). The paper also effectively canvasses legislative options in the wake of Blakely (and the pending Booker and Fanfan), while also making a host of interesting and important analytical observations along the way.

Put simply, this paper is a must read for those thinking hard about the post-Blakely future of sentencing reforms.
Download mpc_report_to_the_council_2004_for_blog.doc