Foreword
Last June, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in what began as a little-noticed case and since has sent shockwaves through the Federal court system. In Blakely v. Washington (2004), the Court held that the State of Washington’s sentencing guidelines violated the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution because they allowed judges to increase the severity of sentences based on facts that had not been proven to a jury.The Court’s decision was only the latest in a number of recent cases that have viewed the Sixth Amendment as requiring juries to not just determine guilt or innocence, but also…
