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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Courts - SCOTUS expands judges’ sentencing powers
Lyle Denniston reports today in SCOTUSBlog, in an entry that begins:
Dividing 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that it does not violate the Constitution for a judge to impose consecutive sentences based on facts that were not found by the jury, but by the judge. The Court thus refused to extend the line of its cases on the Sixth Amendment jury trial right to limit judges’ discretion to require that sentences be served separately rather than simultaneously. Thus, a string of decisions that began with Apprendi v. New Jersey in 2000 is limited to sentencing for single crimes, not to the arrangement for punishing multiple offenses.The case is Oregon v. Ice.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 14, 2009 12:57 PM
Posted to Courts in general