Seventh Circuit agrees with Judge Cassell

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held today that application of the United States Sentencing Commission's Guidelines Manual violated a defendant's Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. The Seventh Circuit stated:

We have expedited our decision in an effort to provide some guidance to the district judges (and our court's own staff), who are faced with an avalanche of motions for resentencing in the light of Blakely v. Washington, 2004 WL 1402697 (U.S. June 24, 2004), which has cast a long shadow over the federal sentencing guidelines.

In so doing, the Seventh Circuit apparently sided with Utah-based U.S. District Judge Paul Cassell, who attracted national attention earlier this week with this opinion. Notably, the Seventh Circuit opinion included an invitation: "If our decision is wrong, may the Supreme Court speedily reverse it."

The Eleventh Circuit held earlier on Friday that Blakely does not apply retroactively on collateral review.