2004 Articles

Comment, Sixth Amendment--State Sentencing Guidelines

Jackson, Robert J.

Since the Supreme Court announced its landmark decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey commentators have worried that the guideline schemes currently used to sentence criminals throughout the United States could no longer be reconciled with the Courts Sixth Amendment jurisprudence. The Court appeared to confirm these fears last Term when in Blakely Washington five Justices agreed that "every defendant has the right to insist that the prosecutor prove to jury all facts legally essential to [his] punishment" and therefore that "the maximum sentence judge may impose...[is] the maximum he may impose with out any additional findings." In response the academy and the Blakely dissenters predicted the demise of guideline sentencing and several courts have held various regimes unconstitutional.