In courtrooms across America, defendants get additional prison time for crimes that juries found they didn't commit. The Supreme Court is being asked, again, to put an end to the practice. It's possible that the newest member of the court and a former federal public defender, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, could hold a pivotal vote.
A jury convicted Dayonta McClinton of robbing a CVS pharmacy but acquitted him of murder. A judge gave McClinton an extra 13 years in prison for the killing anyway.
Sentencing a defendant for what's called "acquitted conduct" has gone on for years, based on a Supreme Court decision from the late 1990s. And the justices have turned down numerous appeals asking them to declare that the Constitution forbids it. Jackson, who also previously served on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, could provide a fourth vote to take up the issue, said Douglas Berman, an expert on sentencing at the Ohio State University law school.
The reputed leader and other members of the group testified against McClinton at trial, as part of their bid for reduced prison terms, McClinton's lawyers wrote.
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