Answer to Question 1
Criticisms include complexity and difficulty of use, limits on the exercise of judicial discretion, harshness, a basis on prior record and offense elements rather than conviction charges, shifts of sentencing authority from judges to prosecutors, dissimilarity to prior system, ethical considerations ignored, biases against minorities, longer prison terms, no consideration of mitigating circumstances.
Answer to Question 2
There have been two recent Supreme Court cases that have placed a moratorium on the use of presumptive guidelines. In Blakely v. Washington, the court found that the sentencing guidelines in Washington violated a defendant's Sixth Amendment rights because they permitted a judge to consider aggravating factors that would increase the sentence. In United States v. Booker, the Court ruled on whether the federal sentencing guidelines were unconstitutional and whether they violate the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury. The court found that a sentence cannot be increased based on facts that were found by a judge and were not found by a jury or admitted by a defendant. The Court did not strike down the guidelines but ruled they could not be regarded as mandatory.
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