DOJ Sentencing Memo to All Federal Prosecutors

As reported on Professor Berman's blog, on January 28, 2005, Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey issued a memorandum to all federal prosecutors (available here) describing the Department's policies and procedures on sentencing after Booker. It requires prosecutors to: (1) continue charging and pursuing the most serious readily provable offenses, which means presenting to the court all readily provable facts relevant to sentencing (i.e., real offense conduct); (2) "actively" seek sentences within the range established by the Sentencing Guidelines "in all but extraordinary cases;" (3) oppose in the district court (to preserve the Department's ability to appeal "unreasonable" sentences) any sentence below "what the United States believes is the appropriate Sentencing Guidelines range (except uncontested departures pursuant to the Guidelines, with supervisory approval); and (4) report to the Department sentences outside the "appropriate Sentencing Guidelines range" and cases in which the district court failed to calculate a Guideline range before imposing an unreasonable sentence (they're making a list and checking it twice!) (there's a form attached to the memo for this very purpose).