States of Blakely excitement

I have now had a chance to read quickly all of the important Blakely opinions handed down by the Arizona Supreme Court on Friday (basics here).  Though the particulars are of greatest interest to folks in Arizona, the rulings reveal yet again how much important Blakely work is being done in the state courts and reinforce my belief, expressed in this post, that the dynamic realities of Blakely in the states might truly be the most interesting sentencing story of the past year.

If you get as excited as I do about Blakely in the states, not to be missed is next month’s 2005 Conference of the National Association of Sentencing Commissions, which is taking place in Washington DC on August 7-9.  The Conference is fittingly entitled “The Continuing Evolution of Sentencing,” and as detailed in this schedule, there will be lots of state Blakely discussion throughout the conference (as well as some federal Booker talk, too).  You can register for this exciting conference via this link.

And, to help everyone catch up on the most recent developments, below I have linked to some recent state Blakely posts:

• Arizona Supreme Court clears its Blakely docket
• Judicial federalism: diverse state high court Blakely rulings
• Problems in Indiana with advisory fix
• Blakely and jury trial rights getting serious respect in NC
• Resources for those in the Black (California’s Blakely decision)
• Big Blakely rulings from the ends of the Union (rulings from Maine and Hawaii)