Professor Berman writes:

Professor Rachel Barkow followed by stressing her concerns about the historic place of juries in the criminal justice system. She criticized the "Bowman proposal" (background here) for being a short-term fix that does not safeguard the place of juries, but only safeguards the place of the existing guidelines. She suggested an alternative short-term fix would be to make the guidelines simply advisory, and she advocated a long-term fix in which there is an effort to identify a short list of core aggravating circumstances that for all cases should be treated as distinct elements leading to full trial rights.

Ronald Weich highlighted the challenge that Blakely creates for effectively balancing competing concerns of fairness in sentencing, and he noted that his written testimony highlighted a range of fairness worries in federal sentencing even before the Blakely ruling. He then endorsed the idea of a short-term fix of making the federal guidelines simply advisory, noting that this would require changing only one provision of the current US Code.

Alan Vinegrad urged short-term and long-term responses, and said some short-term action may be needed in part bacause an additional decision by the Supreme Court would not alone stem the on-going turmoil. Without specifying a short-term fix, he then outlined in some detail his approach to a long-term fix.

Don't miss New York defense lawyer Gerald Shargel's article on Blakley in Slate:

The future of criminal sentences may not be all that bright. A conservative Congress may respond with draconian mandatory minimum sentences that make defendants pine for the bad old days of the guidelines. But at least for now, trial by jury has resumed its rightful place as the bedrock of our constitutional justice system.

Update: A webcast of the Blakely hearing is here.