The Case for Jury Sentencing

There are powerful historical, constitutional, empirical, and policy justifications for a return to the practice of having juries, not judges, impose sentences in criminal cases. The fact that Americans inherited from the English a mild preference for judge sentencing was more a historical accident than a case of thoughtful policy. Jury sentencing became quite widespread in the colonial and postcolonial eras as a reflection of deep-seated mistrust of the judiciary. The gradual drift away from jury sentencing was driven not by a new-found faith in the judiciary, but rather by the now discredited paradigm of rehabilitationism. Now that that paradigm has shifted to neoretribution, and that the essential moral character of the criminal law has been rediscovered, jurors should likewise be rediscovered as the best arbiters of that moral inquiry. A return to jury sentencing would also mesh nicely with the Court\u27s struggle in its Apprendi line of cases to find a sensible way to distinguish between elements and sentence-enhancers under the Sixth Amendment. A Sixth Amendment interpreted to include the right to jury sentencing would also restore the textual symmetry between the Sixth and Seventh Amendments. There are no constitutional, empirical, or policy reasons why a defendant accused of committing negligence has the right to have both his guilt and damages assessed by a jury, but a criminal defendant has only half that right

Intensities of backscatter Mössbauer spectra

The intensities of γ‐ray and x‐ray backscatter Mössbauer spectra of ^(57)Fe nuclei in different matrix materials were studied theoretically and experimentally. A previous analysis by J. J. Bara [Phys. Status Solidi A 58, 349 (1980] showed that negative peak intensities occur in backscatter γ‐ray spectra when the ^(57)Fe nuclei are in a matrix of light elements. We report a confirmation of this work and offer a simple explanation of the phenomenon. The present paper extends Bara’s analysis to the case of conversion x‐ray spectra; expressions for the intensity of conversion x‐ray spectra as a function of absorber thickness and absorber material parameters are presented. We show that negative peak intensities are expected in conversion x‐ray spectra when the ^(57)Fe nuclei are in a matrix of heavy elements

A sufficient condition related to mistaken intuition about adjusted sums-of-squares in linear regression

We consider a misconception common among students of statistics involving "adjusted" and "unadjusted" sums-of-squares. While the presence of misconception has been noted before (e.g. Hamilton (1986)), we argue that it may be related to the language we use in describing the meaning of sums-of-squares. For linear regression with two independent variables, we then present a sufficient condition for SSR( X1 | X2 ) > SSR( X1 ) in terms of the signs of the sample correlations between pairs of predictor and response variables, and note how this sufficient condition may also be related to misconceptions held by some students of statistics. --

FIRE PROTECTION ALTERNATIVES FOR RURAL AREAS

Community/Rural/Urban Development,

Half-time and high-speed running in the second half of soccer

This study investigated if the quantity of high-speed running (movements >15 km.h-1) completed in the first 15 minutes of competitive football matches differed from that completed in the corresponding 15 minutes of the second half. Twenty semi-professional soccer players (age 21.2 ± 3.6 years, body mass 76.4 ± 3.8 kg, height 1.89 ± 0.05 m) participated in the study. Fifty competitive soccer matches and 192 data files were analysed (4 ± 2 files per match) using Global Positioning Satellite technology. Data were analysed using 2-way repeated measures ANOVA and Pearson correlations. No differences were found between the first 15 min of each half for the distance completed at high-speed (>15 km.h-1) or sprinting (>21 km.h-1), or in the number of sprints undertaken (p>0.05). However, total distance covered was shorter (1st half vs. 2nd half: 1746 ± 220 vs. 1644 ± 224 m; p<0.001) and mean speed lower (1st half vs. 2nd half: 7.0 ± 0.9 vs. 6.6 ± 0.9 km.h-1; p<0.001) in the first 15 min of the second half compared to the first. The correlations between the duration of the half-time interval and the difference in the high-speed running or sprinting between first and second halves (0-15 min) were very small (r=0.08 [p=0.25] and r=0.04 [p=0.61] respectively). Therefore, this study did not find any difference between the amount of high-speed running and sprinting completed by semi-professional soccer players when the first 15 minutes of the first and second half of competitive matches were compared The maintenance of high-speed running and sprinting, as total distance and mean speed declined, may be a function of the pacing strategies adopted by players in competitive matches

The Impact Of New Unionization On Wages And Working Conditions: A Longitudinal Study Of Establishments Under NLRB Elections

This study investigates the impact of union organization on the wages and labor practices of establishments newly organized in the 1980s using a research design in which establishments are 'paired' with their closest nonunion competitor. There are two major findings. First. unionism had only a modest effect on wages in the newly organized plants, which contrasts sharply with the huge union wage impact found in cross-section comparisons of union and nonunion individuals on Current Population Survey and related data tapes. Second, in contrast co its modest impact on wages, new unionization substantially altered several personnel practices. creating grievance systems, greater seniority protection. and job bidding and posting. That newly organized establishments adopt union working conditions but grant only modest increases in wages suggests that 'collective voice' rather than monopoly wage gains is the key to understanding what unionism does in the economy.