Influential Judges’ Group Urges Repeal of Tough Sentencing Guidelines

U.S. judges Tuesday urged repeal of legislation passed earlier this year that makes it more difficult for them to impose lighter sentences than specified in federal guidelines.

The Judicial Conference of the United States voted unanimously to support overturning the law, which also requires reports to Congress on any judge who departs from the sentencing guidelines. Critics, including Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, have warned that it could intimidate judges or lead to a “blacklist” of judges deemed soft on criminals.

Rehnquist chairs the 27-judge body, which sets policy for federal trial judges, appellate judges and others. Its recommendations usually are sent to Congress for consideration.

The judges object to limits on what are known as “downward departures” from recommended sentences for federal crimes. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) and others in Congress have criticized judges for using departures to get around the 15-year-old guideline system.

“Downward departures are not as common as they apparently seem to think,” said Carolyn Dineen King, chief judge of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The vast majority of downward departures are the result of a government prosecutor asking for the lower sentence or agreeing to it as part of a plea-bargain, King said after the vote. Perhaps as few as one in 10 departures is really an example of a judge acting on his or her own, King said.

“I think there is a serious question whether there was any need for this legislation in the first place,” she said.

The legislation was part of a wide-ranging child protection law that, among other things, establishes a national “Amber Alert” communications network to respond to child abductions.

The new limits on judges were tucked into the measure over objections from Rehnquist and numerous Democrats in Congress. The judges want to get rid of only those provisions and do not want the entire child protection law repealed.

Kennedy has introduced a bill to repeal the requirements that troubled Rehnquist and the judges, including a requirement that the federal Sentencing Commission turn over detailed information about individual cases when Congress requests it.

In response to the new law, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft told federal prosecutors to promptly report to Justice Department headquarters when a judge dips below the recommended guidelines. The reporting involves cases wherein prosecutors have not agreed to a lighter sentence in exchange for cooperation from a defendant.

“The Department of Justice has a solemn obligation to ensure that laws concerning criminal sentencing are faithfully, fairly and consistently enforced,” Ashcroft wrote in the memo issued July 28.

Ashcroft told prosecutors to make sure the government is prepared to appeal more of these sentences on the say-so of senior lawyers at Justice Department headquarters in Washington.