[ad_1]
Remarkably, it has already been almost a month since Attorney General Merrick Garland issued new charging and sentencing policy guidance for Justice Department prosecutors through two memoranda (basics here). These memos received some press attention (and some blog commentary) when first issued in mid December. But, somewhat surprisingly, I have not since seen all that much continued commentary or further echoes concerning AG Garland’s instructions to federal prosecutors to “promote the equivalent treatment of crack and powder cocaine offenses” and other notable aspects of these notable memos.
Of course, with the holidays and all, it is surely too early to be expecting to see the full impact or fall out from these DOJ memos. Still, given that the instructions in these memos impact every federal criminal case in some way, I am continuing to expect these memos to generate notable cases and controversies before too long. And, while waiting, I have now had the honor and pleasure of working with former ENDY US Attorney Alan Vinegrad to write up a short overview of the memos for coming publication in the February 2023 issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter. The draft of that overview is available for download below, and it starts this way:
On December 16, 2022, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland issued long-awaited guidance setting forth the Department of Justice’s latest charging, plea and sentencing policies. He did so in the form of two memos: one providing general policies for all criminal cases (the “General Memo”), and a second providing additional policies for drug cases (the “Drug Memo”).
These latest DOJ policies are generally consistent in many respects with past policies issued by Attorney General Garland’s predecessors, but they break new ground (or revive previously-rescinded policies) in several areas: mandatory minimum statutes, statutory sentencing enhancements, the crack/cocaine sentencing disparity, and pre-trial diversion. All of these new policies tack in the same direction: ameliorating the harshness of the modern-era federal sentencing regime.
[ad_2]
Source link
