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Sentencing Law and Policy
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Still more state Blakely rulings of note

By Douglas Berman

With Booker and Fanfan apparently still weeks away, we fortunately have more than enough significant state developments to keep Blakely fans busy.  Last week, for example, major Blakely decisions came from intermediate appellate courts in Arizona, Indiana, Oregon, and Tennesse (and, of course, California also contributed yet another dozen or so appellate court rulings involving Blakely issues).

Because I am busy trying to write my testimony for the US Sentencing Commission’s hearings this week, I can only provided a cursory overview of these state developments:

  • In Arizona v. Resendis-Felix, 2004 Ariz. App. LEXIS 165 (Ariz. Ct. App. Nov. 10, 2004), the court reverses and remands on Blakely grounds, and there is a very interesting dispute between the majority opinion and a concurrence concerning the nature and review of a Blakely error.
  • In Traylor v. State, 2004 Ind. App. LEXIS 2229 (Ind. Ct. App. Nov. 10, 2004), the court reverses an aggravated sentence on Blakely grounds; the highlights are here courtesy of INCourts.
  • In State v. Fuerte-Coria, 2004 Ore. App. LEXIS 1462 (Ore. Ct. App. Nov. 10, 2004), the court refuses to find (an unpreserved) Blakely error because it is not clear Blakely extends to the imposition of consecutive sentences on the basis of judicial findings.
  • In State v. Pierce, 2004 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 994 (Tenn. Crim. App. Nov. 2004), the court reduced one part of the defendant’s sentence on Blakely grounds, but upheld the imposition of consecutive sentences over a Blakely objection.