July 21, 2004

Indiana Law - Impact of Blakely on State Courts

Sentencing Law & Policy Blog this morning has a pointer to a very useful 28-page report, issued Monday, July 19th by the National Center for State Courts: "Blakely v. Washington: Implications for State Courts."

One important inclusion is a list of the state courts affected by Blakely. Stories I've seen in the past have included vague references such as "it is estimated that a dozen state courts are affected ..."). Here is information from pp. 3-4 of the report:

States with presumptive sentencing guidelines, determinate sentencing statutes, or presumptive sentencing terms that may be affected include:
· Alaska
· Arizona
· California
· Colorado
· Michigan
· Minnesota
· New Mexico
· North Carolina
· Ohio
· Oregon
· Tennessee
· Washington
* * * [P]resumptive sentences within state guidelines are not affected by Blakely; it is the upward departure from such guidelines (or the addition of any enhancement) that is unconstitutional.
And on page 11 of the report:
Indiana is apparently not affected by Blakely, said a spokesperson for the state’s attorney general.
This corresponds to the only other statement about the potential impact of Blakely on Indiana state courts, I've seen, a brief report in the Gary Post Tribune reported here in the Indiana Law Blog on June 26, 2004.

Posted by Marcia Oddi at July 21, 2004 07:23 AM