The judge this time is Paul Cassell, one of the leading conservative criminal procedure professors who was appointed to federal district court a couple of years ago. Prof. Douglas Berman (Sentencing Law and Policy reports):
I previously noted that law professors like to get the first word on important cases, and apparently that maxim holds even when they become judges. U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell of the District of Utah, who did interesting and provocative work as a law professor before he started doing interesting and provocative work as a judge, became (to my knowledge) the first federal judge to officially decalre the federal sentencing guidelines unconstitutional after Blakely. Here is a link to Judge Cassell’s opinion in US v. Croxford, as well as a link to an article discussing Judge Cassell’s ruling.
Update: I’ve just now had the chance to read Croxford and it is almost as breathtaking as Blakely itself. A must read for all Blakely followers today!
Go to Prof. Berman’s post for the link to the opinion.
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