May 2017

The Tennessee Legislature passed a new sentencing bill in the last minutes of the legislative session. The proposed new law would establish a new enhancement factor for defendants who are aliens illegally or unlawfully in this country and who have previously been deported for a criminal offense. If the sentence cannot be agreed to by

Plea bargains are how criminal cases are resolved today. Jed Rakoff wrote an article a few years ago on why innocent people plead guilty. Some statistics indicate that in 2013 97 % of all federal criminal cases were settled by a plea bargain agreement, In his article Mr. Rakoff discusses the evolution of the plea