Effect of The Decision
Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook noted in an opinion that an argument that since Cunningham's decision, "district judges no longer may find facts that affect federal sentences ... has become popular." The Seventh Circuit rejected that argument:
- Cunningham holds that California’s determinate sentencing law violates the sixth amendment, as understood in, by granting the judge rather than the jury the power to find facts that raise the maximum lawful sentence. contend that Cunningham applies to the federal Sentencing Guidelines as well as to California’s system. ... Booker solved th constitutional problem by making the Guidelines advisory. Given that adjustment, findings of fact under the Guidelines no longer determine statutory maximum sentences. Cunningham therefore has no effect on post-Booker federal practice District judges remain free, as the remedial portion of Booker instructs, to make findings of fact that influence sentences, provided that the sentence is constrained by the maximum set by statute for each crime.
United States v. Roti (7th Cir. 2007), Slip op. at 5-6.
Read more about this topic: Cunningham V. California
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