Responding to Blakely in North Carolina

This article in the New Bern Sun Journal from North Carolina reports that a subcommittee of the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission “has recommended that aggravating factors and some issues related to prior records be submitted to a jury to determine if they exist.”

In the article, John Madler, the associate director of the Commission, highlighted why this recommended modification of N.C. sentencing practice, and more generally “the Blakely earthquake,” are not that disruptive in North Carolina:

The change would likely affect a comparatively small number of cases, he said. “Roughly 7 percent of the people who go to prison have an aggravated sentence,” Madler said….

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling would likely have less of an effect in North Carolina than in some other states because factors such as previous records are already taken into account in the law and are not left up to a judge to decide, Madler said.

“It’s not that big of a deal in North Carolina, compared to other states,” Madler said. “It’s just a piece of our process, rather than a whole structure change.”