Looking forward to a big sentencing month

Though perhaps nothing can match the excitement of last January for sentencing fans, when Booker was finally decided, this January should also be quite the exciting sentencing month.  Following a year with lots of sentencing highlights (assembled here and here), there is no slowing down at the start of 2006.

January 5: Jamie Olis, whose severe 24-year sentence for his role in the Dynegy fraud was reversed by the Fifth Circuit a few months ago, is scheduled to be resentenced.  I have some Olis materials and predictions in this post.

January 9: The confirmation hearings for Judge Sam Alito begin.  I have assembled major Alito/SCOTUS sentencing items in this post.

January 11: The Supreme Court hears argument in House v. Bell, another capital case raising innocence-related issues.  The LA Times ran this recent article about the case.

January 12: The one-year anniversary of the Booker decision.  As discussed here and here, there are rumors that both Congress and the Justice Department may celebrate this date with Booker fix activity.

Sometime in January(?):  The Supreme Court will be continuing to consider cert. petitions from defendants in California and Tennessee (details here) complaining about these states’ high courts dodging the application of Blakely.  I have reason to believe that cert. will be granted on one of these cases sometime in January.