Abstracts Category : Other

The Effect of the Supreme Court's Ruling of U.S. v Booker On Sentence Length in the District of Connecticut

by Gregory 1975- Campos

United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), was a landmark Supreme Court Case that made the Federal Sentencing Guidelines advisory rather than mandatory. Prior to this ruling, U.S. District Judges had limited options if they wanted to sentence outside of the guidelines (also called a departure). The purpose of this study is to examine what effect, if any, an advisory guideline has had on sentence length in the District of Connecticut. It is this writer's belief that sentence lengths for the crimes prosecuted in Connecticut U.S. District Courts have dropped since the Booker ruling in 2005. The reasoning for this is, while Judges wanted some guidelines in place, they did not want to lose their ability to form appropriate sentences based on the facts presented to them. The nature of the mandatory sentencing guidelines created limitations on the Judge's ability to use their years of training and education to impose just sentences. This hypothesis was evaluated two ways. First, there was a comparison of the mean sentence length for all crimes prosecuted in the District of Connecticut prior to the Booker decision (1999-2004) and after (2006-2011). Second, there was a comparison of the mean sentence length for drug and firearm cases during the same two time periods. A third hypothesis was evaluated. Given that the guidelines were intended to create parity in sentencing it should be expected that reduction of mean sentence lengths will remain consistent during the studied timeframe for white and black defendants. The results of the data analysis showed a reduction in mean sentence length, a reduction in firearm and drug sentence length overall, and a reduction when comparing black and white sentence length. The results in this study could be used to improve sentencing outcomes for defendants who are sentenced under the guidelines. "Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters in Criminal Justice."; Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bantley.; M.S.,Central Connecticut State University,,2017.;Advisors/Committee Members: Bantley, Kathleen.