While the blogger is away… the Sixth Circuit shall say…

a whole lot about a lot of sentencing issues.  As noted before, I am in the Eighth Circuit’s backyard, talking about the death penalty in Missouri (more on that later).  But, thanks to How Appealing, I see that my home-town Sixth Circuit released two major rulings today.  Here are the reports courtesy of Howard:

Sixth Circuit decides when a death row inmate’s federal civil rights claim challenging Ohio’s method of implementing the lethal injection accrued: Today’s ruling, by a divided three-judge panel, finds the inmate’s claim to be time-barred. The dissenting opinion, by contrast, would have held that “the statute of limitations should not begin to run until an execution becomes imminent.”

“[T]he plain import of Booker is that a 1-day, below-the-Guidelines sentence, no less than a 7,300-day, above-the-Guidelines sentence, is now a viable sentence for a district court to impose so long as it is authorized by statute and reasonable within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. sec. 3553(a).” So holds a unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit today, in a decision affirming a one-day prison sentence where the advisory Guidelines range produced a sentence of imprisonment of between 37 and 46 months. You can access today’s ruling at this link.

WOW!  I hope to have time tonight to discuss both of these notable developments after I return from my conference.  In the meantime, I hope commentors will share insights.