14 days to go to the DNC in Boston and we're still excited. Here's an updated list of invited bloggers. We still need your help to get there. A lot of help. If you'd rather get us the tech toys we'd like to enhance our live blogging, that's fine too. All help is appreciated.

• Amazon (anonymous)
• PayPal

We're hoping one of the campaigns or a media outlet or corporation will spring for one of our premium ads --that would pay for the trip and we could stop asking readers for contributions. Should that happen, we'll let you know.

Confusion over state and federal sentencing continues. Today's news includes:

• USA Today
• Seattle Post Intelligencer
• Tampa Tribune

And a second federal judge in the Eastern District of New York has found the Sentencing Guidelines unconstitutional.

TChris's Blakely brief in the 7th Circuit Booker case is now available here.

Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee holds its first hearing on the problems engendered by Blakely.

Martha Stewart's lawyers have filed a motion in the wake of the Blakely decision arguing that the Judge is not bound by the Guidelines and can give her probation. Martha's sentencing is set for July 16.

Stewart's lawyers say the Supreme Court's ruling in Blakely prevents Cedarbaum from considering any facts not heard by the jury when weighing Stewart's prison sentence. Without the guidelines, Stewart would face a sentence ranging from five years to probation.

Drug War Chronicle explains the chaos caused by the Supreme Court's Blakely decision. Here are some snippets:

This is the closest thing to legal anarchy I've seen in my lifetime," said Douglas Berman, professor of law at Ohio State University's Moritz College of Law and publisher of the Sentencing Law and Policy web log (blog). "This represents a fundamental shift in power, at least for now. Before this, all the levers of power were disproportionately in the hands of prosecutors. That's all been scrambled by Blakely, but who gets the bigger clubs now remains to be seen," he told DRCNet.

"Blakely was a blockbuster, concurred Jack King, communications director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "Things are really in a state of flux. Some people are pushing at the extremes declaring the whole system unconstitutional, but that contradicts Congress' intent. Congress wanted to limit judicial discretion. This is the best thing that could have happened because the system had fossilized. Maybe now we can start over, but if in the meantime defendants are getting lesser sentences, who is to say that's a bad thing?"

Law Prof Doug Berman at Sentencing Law and Policy reports that William Mercer, US Attorney from Montana, will serve as the DOJ witness at Tuesday's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Blakely.

Mercer, a contributor to the Federal Sentencing Reporter is somewhat noted (some might say notorious) for his complaints about judicial abuse of downward departure authority. Prior to passage of the PROTECT Act and its Feeney Amendment, Mercer testified before the US Sentencing Commission about cases where judges "evaded" lawful guidelines by using their departure authority.

Prof. Berman also has links to the text of two letters addressed to the US Sentencing Commission, one from the Practitioners' Advisory Group and the other from the Federal Defenders, concerning Tuesday's hearing and recommendations to Congress.

You can read the 65 page Ken Lay Superseding Indictment here (pdf). Why would you want to? Well, if you're a defense lawyer, page 64 has the sentencing allegations, which gives you a nice preview of how the Government thinks it will get around Blakely. We've read the DOJ memos on what they intend to do, but this shows it in application.

Way to go, TChris. TChris is the first defense lawyer in the country to have a federal court of appeals declare the U.S. Sentencing guidelines unconstitutional as applied following the Supreme Court's Blakely decision.

Since the Blakely decision came down, TChris has been working night and day on his case. He did the oral argument last week.

We are so proud of our contributing blogger, and feel extra lucky to have him blogging on TalkLeft.

Update: The Chicago Tribune examines the decision in TChris's case and the impact of Blakely across the country.

by TChris

The Seventh Circuit this afternoon declared the federal sentencing guidelines unconstitutional as applied to a sentence that was enhanced on the basis of facts that were not determined by a jury. This appears to be the first appellate decision to find that the Supreme Court's decision in Blakely requires facts that determine a guideline sentence to be found by a jury. In the interest of full disclosure, TChris (speaking here in the third person) was the defense attorney who argued the case: USA v. Booker (pdf).

The court did not decide whether the guidelines are unconstitutional in their entirety. It did not decide whether the guideline requirement that judges find sentencing facts can be severed from the other guideline requirements, leaving that for the district court to consider on remand.

The 7th Circuit has spoken on Blakely. Per Judge Posner, with Judge Easterbrook dissenting, here is the opinion in US v. Booker. [link via Sentencing Law and Policy]

Via How Appealing:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit holds that Blakely v. Washington does not apply retroactively in a federal habeas corpus proceeding to cases on collateral review: You can access today's ruling at this link. This, to my knowledge, is the first federal appellate ruling to directly address Blakely's applicability, although word is that more such decisions will be arriving quite soon.

Two more opinions, from Utah and one from Judge Cassell of Croxford fame.

DNCC Honorary Veterans Chair Sen. Max Cleland just sent out this news about the press facilities for the Democratic Convention in Boston:

Recently we raised the roof on a 100,000 square foot outdoor Press Pavilion that will house more than 2,000 print reporters who will be covering the Convention. By July 26, the FleetCenter will have been converted into the perfect venue for our 2004 Democratic National Convention.... The Press Pavilion, being built on the site of the old Boston Garden, will be the largest multi-story, temporary building ever constructed in the United States. Similar structures are being used at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece. For the foundation of the Press Pavilion, 1,000 yards of concrete have been poured, over 2,000 yards of fill placed, and 50,000 square feet of 1 ½"-thick "hot top" paved. The roof, weighing in at 180,000 lbs., took six cranes to lift into place.

Also, sixty tons of structural steel and dozens of rigging stanchions were installed in the roof of the FleetCenter. Additionally, more than 4,000 seats have been removed to make way for the podium and press stands. Forty-four skyboxes are being turned into media suites, and an additional 20 skyboxes behind the stage are being converted into offices. Electricians have already started laying the more than 4,000 miles of cable that will be installed to facilitate communications and electronic voting. Construction on the stage will begin soon, along with the conversion of locker rooms (normally used by the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins) into offices for staff and waiting rooms where speakers will prepare before going on stage.

17 days to go, we are very excited. We've raised $600 so far towards our expected expenses of $2,000 - $3,000.00---if you can help us out, our Paypal page is here . If you'd like to donate anonymously, use Amazon. Both are secure. Many, many thanks.

This is the smartest move the accuser in the Kobe Bryant case has made to date: She's added Atlanta libel guru Lin Wood to her legal team. Lin Wood is the lawyer for John and Patsy Ramsey and Richard Jewell, among others. He will be a forceful advocate for her privacy rights. In addition to trying to keep the media from publishing the mistakenly released sealed transcripts of the rape-shield hearing, he'll likely begin scrutinizing all media comments for potential libel lawsuits.

As a legal analyst, the hiring won't silence us or change our commentary, we'll just be on high alert (as opposed to our current state of "cautious") as to how we phrase it from now on. As we told the Los Angeles Times the other day:

....Merritt said that too often the public thinks defense lawyers are attacking an accuser's character when instead the issue is their credibility. In rape cases that hinge on consent, she said, witnesses' credibility is crucial...."The defense attorney has an obligation to bring out any facts to the jury that support his or her client's defense," she said. "The defense lawyer is not needlessly attacking the victim of a rape. They're going after that person because her story doesn't ring true."

Ampersand politely disagrees with us. We understand her position. But credibility is fair game.

Cyberjournalist.net has the names of several bloggers who have received press credentials to cover the Democratic Convention. Here are the ones so far:

• Dave Winer of Scripting News
• Dave Weinberger

• Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

• NYU's Jay Rosen, who has lengthy essay about the incoherence of modern conventions and the freshness bloggers may bring.

• Markos Moulitsas Zuniga from the Daily Kos

• Jerome Armstrong

• Aldon Hynes

• Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft

Many thanks to those of you who contributed to our convention expense fund. We've raised $200.00 so far, and our goal is at least $2,000.00--so if you are a regular reader or commenter on TalkLeft, or you'd just like to help us out, we'd really appreciate it. It will cost us about $3,000 to make the trip, and we promise great coverage--particularly of behind-the-scenes goings-on the mainsteam press may not tell you about. We're calling it news with attitude.

We'll be sending everyone who contributes by paypal an individualized thank-you e-mail. If you'd like to donate anonymously, use Amazon. Both are secure. Many, many thanks.

Cyberjournalist is offering a place for readers to submit questions to the convention bloggers. If there is something in particular you'd like us to cover or focus on, let us know in the comments.

by TChris

Unofficial word that another U.S. District Judge (this one in the Western District of Texas) has declared the federal sentencing guidelines unconstitutional under Blakely. His precise reasoning at this point seems unclear, but a written opinion may be forthcoming.
(via Blakelyblog)

(Update: (TL) Blakely Blog is another new blog on the Blakely decision by Jason Hernandez, "a 3rd year law student at Columbia Law School whose Note is in serious jeopardy of entering the circular file following Blakely.")