More Booker news, commentary and anecdotes

Yet again, this morning brings Booker pieces filled with commentary and anecdotes about the new look of federal sentencing.  (In case you spent all weekend shoveling snow, links to weekend stories are here and here.)

• This article from North Carolina reports on a drug sentencing in which US District Court Judge Louise Flanagan followed the guidelines and also discusses what may and may not change in local federal sentencing after Booker.

• This article from Florida explores a particular case, and this article from Kentucky talks to a particular judge, for post-Booker perspective on federal sentencing.

• The Yale Daily News has this Booker commentary, and TalkLeft has an interesting post with commentary here on a great Booker-Feeney piece from law.com that I previously linked.

And, as I stressed in recent posts here and here, the state Blakely story continues to intrigue.  Proof today comes in this story from Alaska discussing a “Blakely fix” in the state legislature which “will give judges more discretion in sentencing offenders of serious crimes.”

UPDATE:  Thanks to Howard at How Appealing, I see Stuart Taylor has this commentary on Booker at the National Journal.  I find particularly amusing (and fitting) the piece’s opening paragraph about our new bouncing baby federal sentencing system:

The birthing process was protracted, ugly, and unprincipled. But the baby doesn’t look as bad as expected.  And it may do OK unless it’s strangled in its crib by Congress or abused by the judiciary.