Law experts talk about sentencing

A group of lawyers and judges is meeting today and tomorrow at the University of Iowa for a symposium on federal sentencing guidelines. U-of-I sociology professor Celesta Albonetti. She says they’ll discuss the legal issues generated since the sentencing guidelines went into effect in 1987. Albonetti says the guidelines include a sentencing grid that includes numbers assigned to various federal crimes.The number of the crime is on the vertical access and the judge adds in other factors such as injury and death to come up with a sentence. She says the symposium is designed to discuss some of the issues that have arisen from the use of the sentencing guidelines, and those that have not.Albonetti says all Americans are impacted by the way federal sentencing guidelines are used.Albonetti says the federal death penalty will likely come up in the discussion, but says there isn’t any time set aside specifically to address the issue.