Blog
Straight to Sentencing: Pre-Trial Detention Through the Lens of SBF & DJT
When a judge incarcerates a client awaiting trial, each of whom has not been convicted and is therefore presumed innocent, the practical result is that they go straight to sentencing without passing go, without collecting 200 dollars. Pre-trial detention should be reserved for the worst, or most potentially violent alleged offenders. But it’s not. And the…
Acquitted Conduct Revisited: Mmmmm… Flavors of Evil
WATCH ON YOUTUBE, or LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS, SPOTIFY, or wherever you get your podcasts! If you wanna feel really dim, spend an hour or so trying to debate the fine points of federal constitutional law with Prof. Doug Berman and Mark Allenbaugh. We had to come back to the issue of how the guidelines…
Too Cute By Half: Why Hunter’s Plea Went South
Let us journey once more, into the BREACH, dear listeners. We talked about sentencing implications of Hunter Biden’s proposed plea agreement, but now we have to talk about why it all crashed and burned. Spoiler alert, it’s because of the plea provision discussing what happens if Hunter is found by the government to be in…
The 3rd Trump Indictment (Sentencing Guidelines): Everything Nowhere All at Once.
Everyone is talking about the latest Trump indictment. But nobody is talking about the possible sentence he might face if convicted. That’s what we do! Spoiler alert — it’s a big deal. WATCH ON YOUTUBE or LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS (or wherever you get your podcasts!) Yes, it sucks that we have to keep doing…
Surviving Pretrial, Vol. 1: Is My Lawyer Any Good?
WATCH ON YOUTUBE or LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS (or wherever you get your podcasts!) All lawyers are not created equal, and that applies to private practice and public defenders. But clients don’t necessarily understand how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Bilal Khan understands this better than most – he’s been through it all,…
The Power of Empathy
I believe that NOTHING IN THE LAW MAKES SENSE EXCEPT IN LIGHT OF EMPATHY. This is especially true when it comes to sentencing. A lawyer’s ability to understand and connect with a client is essential to their practice. But it’s not an easy concept to understand, it’s not always easy to put into practice, and…
The Cold Hard Truth About White Collar Crime: With Kelly Richmond Pope
This week, helping us get Set For Sentencing is Dr. Kelly Richmond Pope. She’s a fraud expert, a filmmaker, and an accounting professor at DePaul University in Chicago. Her latest book, “Fool Me Once: Scams Stories and secrets from the Trillion Dollar Fraud Industry,” is burning up the charts nationally. Why do people commit fraud? …
Drugs on the Docket: Data and storytelling in federal drug sentencing and the U.S. Sentencing Commission
Mark Allenbaugh and I recently had the honor of appearing on an important new podcast about drug policy, created by the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center at the Ohio State University. This six-part series was released in May 2023. In coordination with the creators of this excellent podcast, we are re-posting our episode, (ep. 5)…
Life in the Shadow of Death, With Cyndy Short
Cyndy Short has been representing those accused of the worst crimes imaginable for most of her career – and she has NEVER had a client sentenced to death on her watch. She understands that sometimes what makes a lawyer great isn’t their legal abilities, but their human abilities. In other words, it’s time for lawyers to…
