Contrasting perspectives on the post-Booker world

Two items in the morning newspapers highlight how perspectives on long sentences and the concept of disparity necessarily color any assessment of the post-Booker world of federal sentencing:

• This commentary from The Tennesseean reviews the findings of the Sentencing Project in its recent report “Sentencing with Discretion: Crack Cocaine Sentencing After Booker” (discussed here).  The commentary concludes by asserting that the Sentencing Project’s report “shows that the Booker ruling is a positive and workable step,” but that “there’s still work to be done in bringing in line the punishment disparity between trafficking crack cocaine and powder cocaine.”

• This article from The Republican reports on a recent sentencing in Massachusetts in which a federal prosecutor “told U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor that he and other members of the federal law enforcement community are frustrated with the number of times in the last year Ponsor has given sentences below federal sentencing guidelines.”  The article details that Judge Ponsor imposed a 16-year sentence, which was below the 30-year guideline sentence sought by the prosecution in the name of avoiding disparity.