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4 Rutgers J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 411 (2006-2007)
Old Wine in New Bottles: A Reconsideration of Informing Jurors about Punishment in Determine-and Mandatory-Sentencing Cases

handle is hein.journals/rutjulp4 and id is 411 raw text is: Rutgers Journal of Law & Public Policy OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLES: A RECONSIDERATION OF INFORMING JURORS ABOUT PUNISHMENT IN DETERMINATE- AND MANDATORY- SENTENCING CASES By Lance Cassak & Milton Heumann* This is without question the worst case of my judicial career...'1 So observed United States District Court Judge Gerard Lynch in 2002 in a case before him involving a defendant facing a mandatory-minimum ten-year sentence on a charge of advertising the distribution of child pornography.2 That case and Judge Lynch's actions and observations, about which more will be said later, brought dramatic if brief attention to an issue that we first wrote about more than twenty years ago: whether and under what circumstances jurors should be told about the punishment faced by defendants in cases before them. If, as Victor Hugo observed, no army is as powerful as an idea whose time has come,3 it must also be true that many an Mr. Cassak is Special Counsel with Baker Botts, LP, and Professor Heumann is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. We want to thank Gabe Pell for his outstanding work as a research assistant at a critical time in the development of this article. Gabe's research was excellent, his insights were wonderful and his enthusiasm for the project matched our own. 1 Benjamin Weiser, A Judge's Struggle To Avoid Imposing a Penalty He Hated, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 13, 2004, at Al. 2 Id. 3 This is a rough translation of Hugo's statement, On resiste a 1 invasion des armees; on ne resiste pas a l'invasion des idees. V. HUGO, HISTOIRE D'UN CRIME (1852). 411 Winter 2007 Vol 4:2

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