Douglas Berman has a very interesting post late this afternoon re "the first on-the-record Blakely ruling of note from Florida, ... in US v. King, No. 6:04-cr-35 from United States District Judge Gregory A. Presnell of the Middle District of Florida (Orlando division)." Berman quotes this passage from the opinion:
The suggestion that courts use the Guidelines in some cases but not others is at best schizophrenic and at worst contrary to basic principles of justice, practicality, fairness, due process, and equal protection. Courts simply cannot apply a determinate sentencing code to one defendant whose sentence raises no judicial fact-finding enhancement issues and a separate discretionary scheme to another defendant whose sentence does raise enhancement issues. Such a structure not only seems to violate equal protection principles but would lead to the perverse result that both Government and criminal defense attorneys would plot to finagle their way into the determinate system or indeterminate system depending on the judge and the various factors relevant to the particular defendant’s sentence.with the comment that "Martha Stewart might have hoped [this point] would have been rendered a few days earlier."
Recall that, as reported by the AP at the time, "Stewart's lawyers had asked the judge to declare the federal guidelines unconstitutional based on a June 24 Supreme Court decision that said Washington state judges could not impose harsher sentences than state guidelines based on facts that had not been presented to a jury. [Judge] Cedarbaum, in a one-paragraph, handwritten opinion earlier this week, denied the motion, adding: 'The sentencing guidelines applicable to this case do not require any enhancement by the judge.'"
Judge Presnell, on the contrary, begins his Sentencing Memorandum Opinion in US v. King:
These are the first sentences imposed by this Court since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Blakely v. Washington, __ U.S. __, 124 S. Ct. 2531 (2004). The Government contends that Blakely does not impact these sentences because it does not seek any sentencing enhancements. For the reasons stated below, however, Blakely does impact these sentences, as well as every other sentence this Court will hand down hereinafter.Posted by Marcia Oddi at July 20, 2004 07:04 PM