From the Bench

Ingersoll, I love it when you use charts, but there's nothing like a good old-fashioned survey to get my policy wonk blood up in the morning.

I'm still going over the U.S. Sentencing Commission's new survey results from federal judges, and they're pretty powerful.  The judges surveyed didn't agree on everything, but clear -- and sometimes surprising -- consensus does arise on more than one point.

Take these results, for example:

• 62% of judges thought mandatory minimum sentences were too high for all crimes
• 71% thought mandatory minimums were too high for receipt of child pornography (which carries a 5-year prison term that some judges find too harsh in some cases)
• 76% thought mandatory minimums were too high for crack cocaine crimes

And that's just mandatory minimums.  Here are some interesting safety valve finds:

• 69% of judges thought the "safety valve" exception to drug mandatory minimums should be expanded to apply to all crimes with mandatory sentences
• 71% thought the current drug "safety valve" should be expanded to apply to receipt of child pornography crimes

A measly 16% of judges thought it was okay to consider so-called "acquitted conduct" at sentencing.  Prepare yourself to hear something downright un-American, because here's the gist of "acquitted conduct":  you're charged with two crimes, crime A and crime B.  The jury finds you not guilty of crime A, but convicts you for crime B.  Under current rules, at sentencing for crime B, the judge can still sentence you as if you committed crime A -- even though a jury acquitted you of that crime!

It's a travesty of justice, right?  Judges apparently think so.

Finally, the Commission asked the judges to pick the sentencing system that best achieves the purposes of punishment (rehabilitation, deterrence, public safety, and just punishment).  A stunning 75% picked the current advisory guidelines system.  Only 3% opted for the mandatory guidelines system that existed before Booker. 

Perhaps those clamoring to return to the pre-Booker world should reconsider.  We might have hundreds of upset judges to deal with if we did.

-- Stowe