My Booker data “wish list”
Today marks the nine-month anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Booker decision. Since I have been talking a lot lately about post-Booker data (see posts here and here and here), I thought I might celebrate the day by setting out my personal Booker data “wish list.” Below I have detailed just some information I would like to see in order to get a more complete view of the shape of the post-Booker world of federal sentencing:
District Court Data Wish List:
- District-by-district data on within- and outside-the-guidelines sentences
- Data on the most commonly stated grounds for judicial departures and variances
- Extent-of-departure and extent-of-variance data for sentences outside the guidelines
- Data on within- and outside-the-guidelines sentences for first offenders
- Data on within- and outside-the-guidelines sentences for non-violent offenders
Circuit Court Data Wish List:
- Data on total number of post-Booker appellate dispositions by circuit
- Detailed data on “plain error” outcomes in the circuits
- Data on how many, and why, sentences have been found unreasonable
- Data on how many outside-the-guidelines sentences have been found reasonable
The latest issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter assembles a lot of material exploring the question “Is a Booker Fix Needed?”. Ultimately, I do not think this question can be sensibly answered until at least some of these data are available.