A morning full of sentencing stories

The newspapers this morning have a number of interesting stories on a number of interesting and diverse sentencing topics.  Here’s a sample of some of the highlights:

• On the Blakely front, this article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune discusses thoughtfully the struggles in Minnesota with state sentencing procedures after Blakelythis article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette explores possible reasons why the Supreme Court has not decided Booker and Fanfan yet.

• In other state sentencing stories, this interesting article from Vermont discusses the Governor’s plans “to release a detailed proposal to ease the overcrowding that has been plaguing the corrections system.”  As the article details, the plan includes “recommendations to build a work camp and to use sophisticated technology to monitor inmates outside of the traditional prison setting.”

• From the death penalty desk, this article from the New York Times analyzes the on-going debate over revising New York’s (now unconstitutional) death penalty law; and editorials from Michigan and Ohio provide more arguments for reconsidering, or at least reexamining, the use of capital punishment (similar recent editorials are discussed here).