Recent Supreme Court Decision

Recently the US Supreme Court (S.C.) decided a case that will be fairly important to criminal lawyers and their clients. In United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. __ (2005), the S.C. held that the federal sentencing guidelines, up to this point considered mandatory, are merely what the name suggests, guidelines, and are not to be imposed mandatorily. There are two types of what is called a 'booker error': Constitutional and non-Constitutional. The Constitutional error involves a judge sentencing a defendant based on facts that the judge found. Since, according to the Sixth Amendment, every criminal defendant has a right to a jury of his or her peers, every fact used in a trial must be proved to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The non-Constitutional booker error is the imposition of the guidelines as a mandatory sentence rather than a discretionary sentence. Lest any detained persons get too excited though, at least in the 10th Circuit, this S.C. decision does apply retroactively. So, if you've already been sentenced, forget attempting to appeal it on these grounds - you're out of luck. However, if you have yet to be sentenced, the court will have to take this new decision into account. That one is for all you Constitutional nuts out there (of which I happen to be one).