The title of this post is the title of this new essay now available via SSRN authored by Christopher Slobogin. Here is its abstract: Expert opinion about dangerousness —
the risk of reoffending — is commonly introduced at sentencing, criminal commitment proceedings, and some types of pretrial detention hearings. This Essay argues [...]
I was enjoying the great outdoors this morning when I heard the news of the (surprising?) split verdict in the high-profile federal trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs. This Reuters
article provides the basics: Sean "Diddy" Combs was cleared on Wednesday of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life [...]
The Council on Criminal Justice (CCJ) continues its important and timely work on modern crime realities with the release ofthis new report, titled ""Trends in Gun Theft: Leveraging
Data to Inform Crime Policy." Here is some text from the start of the report, which was authored by Deborah Azrael and Susan T. [...]
I am pleased to see that the June 2025 issue of the Criminal Law Forum, which servs as the "Official Journal of the Society for the Reform of Criminal Law," is devoted to celebrating
the work of sentencing guru Michael Tonry. There are 12 articles in the issue that all look worthy of a close read, and I will likely spotlight a number of the [...]
In this new Forbes article, headlined "Bureau Of Prisons Director William Marshall Addresses Challenges," Walter Pavlo reports on his interview with BOP's new leader. I recommend
the full piece, and here are some excerpts: Newly appointed Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Director William Marshall III provided me with an exclusive interview for a post [...]
As reported in this New York Times report, "Bryan Kohberger, the man charged in the brutal stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students, has reached a plea deal to
avoid the death penalty, according to a letter that prosecutors sent to relatives of the victims." Here is more about a notable sentencing decision made by prosecutors [...]
In this recent post reviewing the Supreme Court Term just completed, I suggested that Esteras v. United States, which addresses federal supervised release decision-making,
could have significant practical impact over an important component of the federal criminal justice system. But I am not really sure it will have that much of an [...]
The quoted portion of the title of this post is the headline of this effective Law360 piece reviewing an array of recent state law developments regarding LWOP punishments for
younger offenders. I recommend the lengthy piece in full, and here are just a few snippets: According to The Sentencing Project, nearly 200,000 people are serving [...]
The Surpeme Court released this lengthy order list this morning, and there are a number of items throughout the 32-page list that will be of interest to criminal law fans.
For starters, we get a few GVRs based on the recently decided cases of Hewitt and Esteras, as well as one based on Gutierrez that Justice Thomas disagreed with. [...]
This official webpage with links to the US Supreme Court's merits opinion for its October Term 2024 lists 66 opinions, though less than 60 are what I would categorize as full
opinions. Based on my too-quick review and accounting of these full opinions, there are 13 — just over 20% — that I think are fairly viewed as criminal justice [...]
