Gearing up for March Madness

March is, of course, one of the most exciting sports months as we fill out our NCAA brackets and our fantasy baseball rosters.  But, with the busy Booker calender humming along and with other big events on the near horizon, March is also shaping up to be an exciting sentencing month.  Consider:

March 1:  Arguments in the New Jersey Supreme Court in major Blakely cases, which can be followed via live webcast at 10am at this link.  UPDATE: Due to the severe weather, these arguments have been postponed until March 14.

March 1 and 2:  The next decision days for the Supreme Court, allowing for more watching for decisions in Roper v. Simmons, the juvenile death penalty case, and Shepard v. US, the criminal history case.

March 7: En banc arguments in the Tenth Circuit on Booker issues (basics here).

March 9: En banc arguments in the Eighth Circuit on Booker plain error (basics here).

March 10-11: As detailed here, Ohio State’s Justice for Children Project, in conjunction with the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law and the OSU Center for Law, Policy, and Social Science, will sponsor a conference entitled “The Mind of a Child: The Relationship Between Brain Development, Cognitive Functioning, and Accountability Under the Law.”  The event’s full brochure is linked here.

March 21, 28, 30: Supreme Court arguments in major corrections (Cutter v. Wilkinson and Wilkinson v. Austin) and death penalty (Medellin v. Dretke) cases.

March 25: As detailed here, the William and Mary School of Law presents a symposium entitled “In Prison for 30 Years for Fraud: Sentencing and the Constitution After Sarbanes-Oxley.”

In addition, I anticipate that before the end of March we may see a proposal from the Justice Department for some sort of “Booker fix” and/or Senate hearings examining the Booker fallout.  In addition, as explained here, I am very hopeful that we will get updated post-Booker sentencing data from the US Sentencing Commission in March.