Law program to examine sentencing

The Law School‘s 2001 Kastenmeier Colloquium will address the topic “Sentencing Criminals: After a Quarter Century of Reform, Where Are We?” Friday, March 23, in Godfrey & Kahn Hall (Room 2260), from 3-5:30 p.m.

The program will be transmitted electronically to Michael, Best & Friedrich Hall (Room 2211).

Panelists will include Law School professor Michael Smith and three other specialists in the field of sentencing:

• Thomas Hutchison, moderator, is an attorney with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, responsible for representing the interests of the Federal Public and Community Defenders before the United States Sentencing Commission and for training attorneys who represent indigent defendants in federal court about sentencing matters.
• Douglas Berman is assistant professor of law at Ohio State University, where he teaches criminal law and criminal punishment and sentencing.
• Michael E. Smith is an assistant professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, and sentencing and corrections.
• John Steer is a vice chair of the United States Sentencing Commission, appointed by President Clinton in November 1999.

Introducing the panel will be the Hon. Robert Kastenmeier, the former Wisconsin Congressman whose longtime record of public service is honored each year by this colloquium.

Starting in the mid-1970s there has been an ongoing debate in the legislatures and courts, as well as among scholars of criminal justice, about what would be an appropriate way to guide judges in the sentencing of criminals.

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 significantly changed federal sentencing practices. Until the guidelines took effect, a federal judge was free to impose any sentence deemed appropriate, up to the statutory maximum. The Sentencing Reform Act abolished parole and made the judge the determiner of the length of time served. The act, however, also restricted the judge’s discretion, requiring the judge to impose a sentence called for by sentencing guidelines, unless there were extraordinary circumstances. There have been many complaints about the sentencing system established by the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.

This colloquium is supported by the fund established to honor Robert W. Kastenmeier, an outstanding graduate of the Law School, who served in Congress from 1958-1990.