Blakely v. Washington
Supreme Court of the United States Official seal of the Supreme Court of the United States File links The following pages link to this file: Marbury v. ...
Argued March 23, 2004 Decided June 24, 2004
Full case name: Ralph Howard Blakely, Jr. v. Washington Citations: 542 U.S. 296; 124 S. Ct. 2531; 159 L. Ed. 2d 403; 2004 U.S. LEXIS 4573; 72 U.S.L.W. 4546; 17 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 430 Prior history: defendant sentenced, Washington Superior Court, Grant County, 11-13-00; affirmed, 47 P.3d 149 (Wash. App. 2002); review denied, 62 P.3d 889 (Wash. 2003); certiorari granted, 540 U.S. 965 (2003) Subsequent history: rehearing denied, 125 S. Ct. 21 (2004)
Holding
The State of Washington's criminal sentencing system violated the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial1, because it gave judges the ability to increase sentences based on their own determination of facts. Judgment of Washington Court of Appeals reversed and case remanded.
Court membership
Chief Justice: William Rehnquist Associate Justices: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer
Case opinions
Majority by: Scalia Joined by: Stevens, Souter, Thomas, Ginsburg Dissent by: O'Connor Joined by: Breyer; joined by Rehnquist and Kennedy except as to Part IV-B Dissent by: Kennedy Joined by: Breyer Dissent by: Breyer Joined by: O'Connor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. Amend. VI;1 Washington Sentencing Reform Act

Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296 (2004), was a United States Supreme Court decision. The Court ruled, five to four, that the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial¹ prohibited judges from enhancing criminal sentences based on facts other than those decided by the jury or confessed to by the defendant. Court citation is a standard system used in common law countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Australia to uniquely identify the location of past court cases in special series of books called reporters. ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C. The Supreme Court Building, Washington, D.C., (large image) The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States... Amendment VI (the Sixth Amendment) of the United States Constitution guarantees rights related to criminal prosecutions in federal courts. ... A jury trial is a trial in which the judge of the facts, as opposed to the judge of the law, is a jury, made up of citizens who are usually randomly selected and are generally not legal professionals. ... for other uses please see Crime (disambiguation) A crime is an act that violates a political or moral law. ...

Background of the case

The case involved the sentencing of Ralph Blakely, Jr., a man who had pled guilty to kidnapping his estranged wife in Grant County, Washington. The Washington state Sentencing Reform Act required standard sentences according to statutory guidelines unless the judge found "aggravating circumstances." In Blakely's case, the judge found, independently of what Blakely had confessed to, that he had acted with "deliberate cruelty." The judge raised Blakely's standard sentence of 53 months up to 90. Grant County is a county located in the state of Washington. ... Official language(s) None Capital Olympia Largest city Seattle Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 18th 184,824 km² 385 km 580 km 6. ...

Blakely appealed his sentence in state court as a violation of his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial.¹ The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the trial judge's determination and the Washington Supreme Court denied discretionary review. The members of the Washington State Supreme Court are: Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, Justice Bobbe Bridge, Justice Tom Chambers, Justice Mary Fairhurst, Justice Charles Johnson, Justice James Johnson, Justice Barbara Madsen, Justice Susan Owens and Justice Richard Sanders. ...

The Court's decision

Blakely was then granted review by the U.S. Supreme Court, which reversed the Washington Court of Appeals and remanded Blakely's sentence for a redetermination and reduction by the Washington courts. The Court's ruling also had the effect of invalidating sentencing schemes such as the Washington Sentencing Reform Act, that give judges the power to increase sentences based on facts not confessed to nor found by a jury.

The Court's opinion extended beyond Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), in which a New Jersey hate crime law was struck because it allowed judges to enhance sentences beyond the statutory maximum based on their own finding of aggravating circumstances, in contrast to the Washington system invalidated here. The Justices voted along the same divisions in Apprendi as in Blakely. Apprendi v. ... A Jewish cemetery in France after being defaced by Neo-Nazis. ...

Notes

*Note 1: As applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment; see Incorporation. poop A U.S. state is any one of the fifty states (four of which officially favor the term commonwealth) which, with the District of Columbia, forms the United States of America. ... The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is one of the post-Civil War amendments and includes the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. ... Incorporation of the Bill of Rights is the legal doctrine by which portions of the U.S. Bill of Rights are applied to the states through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. ...

External links

Court denies rehearing in Blakely case