For the Defense - Vol. 6, Issue 1 - 24
Pennsylvania's Mandatory Minimum
Sentences: End of the Road or Course
Mark H. Bergstrom, Jessica N. Rembold
Correction?
and William J. Niehenke
I
n recent years, Pennsylvania has experienced a
substantial reduction in the number of persons
committed to the Department of Corrections. One
contributing factor has been the invalidation of
numerous mandatory minimum sentencing statutes that
relied on determinations made at sentencing rather than
proof at trial. The recently revised Model Penal Code:
Sentencing by the American Law Institute reiterates and
elevates a position it first took in 1962 that legislatively
mandated minimum sentences are unsound, and " that
such provisions failed to advance their purported goals,
worked injustice as applied in individual cases, and
distorted the operation of the criminal justice system. " 1
This paper documents the history of and challenges
to Pennsylvania's mandatory minimum sentencing
provisions, and compares this with Pennsylvania's
advisory sentencing guidelines, as examples of coexisting and competing sentencing structures.
24
For The Defense l Vol. 6, Issue 1
In the beginning... The Modern Era of Sentencing
In February of 1966, the Joint State Government
Commission submitted its biannual report to the
Pennsylvania General Assembly, highlighting work on the
" codification and revision of extensive bodies of law " ,
including efforts to " consolidate, amend, and review the
penal laws of the Commonwealth. " 2 The Commission
noted several reasons for this project. First was the need
to address outdated penal laws, most of which were
based on Act 382 of 1860 and modified by Act 872 of
1939. Second was the support in the Legislature and
from the Pennsylvania Bar Association of the American
Law Institute Model Penal Code published in 1962. As
described in the Commission's report, the streamlining of
the criminal law consistent with the Model Penal Code
allowed " discarding of obsolete and introducing new
approaches to meet present-day conditions. " 3 Included in
For the Defense - Vol. 6, Issue 1
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of For the Defense - Vol. 6, Issue 1
Contents
For the Defense - Vol. 6, Issue 1 - 1
For the Defense - Vol. 6, Issue 1 - 2
For the Defense - Vol. 6, Issue 1 - Contents
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For the Defense - Vol. 6, Issue 1 - 5
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