The ABA weighs in on Booker
I just received a copy of the final Recommendation and Report submitted by the Blakely Task Force on behalf of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Section to the ABA’s House of Delegates (which apparently will be considered officially at a meeting later this month). The document, which can be downloaded below, “urges the United States Congress to take [certain] steps to assure that federal sentencing practices are effective, fair and just and effectuate the goals of sentencing set forth in the Sentencing Reform Act.”
In short form, the Task Force is urging that Congress allow the current advisory system to remain in place for at least 12 months to allow sufficient time to evaluate its efficacy. In addition, this report states that, Congress believes that advisory guidelines are unacceptable after this period of study, then it should give careful consideration to a simplified, Blakely-ized federal sentencing system.