The latest news on Blakely in Tennessee
Attorney David Raybin, who has been integrally involved in many Tennessee Blakely developments, sent me tonight the latest news on his state’s Blakely drama. The big recent development is that on Tuesday, June 7, Tennessee’s Governor is scheduled to sign “Blakely fix” legislation — even though, as detailed here and here, the Tennessee Supreme Court has reached the (seemingly erroneous) conclusion that the state’s current sentencing laws are not broken.
As detailed more fully in David Raybin’s report, which can be downloaded below, Tennessee’s “Blakely fix” legislation serves to “Booker-ize” the state’s sentencing scheme. That is, the legislation converts Tennessee’s mandatory sentencing regulations into advisory guidelines that state judges must now consider, but are no longer required to follow. I believe Tennessee is the only state to date to adopt legislatively a Booker advisory guidelines approach to deal with Blakely issues, although other states like Alaska and Minnesota have in smaller ways provided judges with more sentencing discretion through Blakely fix legislation. (A now-slightly-dated review of the state of state Blakely fixes and high court rulings is available at this post.)