Blakely on the Agenda of the Indiana Judicial Conference

It seems that Blakely is going to be on the afternoon menu of the Judicial Conference on September 23rd. The unspecified speaker will discuss Blakely's "potential impact in Indiana and practical tips for dealing with Blakely." (The full, googlized, agenda is here.)

My anecdotal understanding is that the Judicial Center is giving out pretty detailed "tips" to the trial courts on request, and that the major "tip" is that Blakely applies in Indiana. If that is true, that is not something the Judicial Center staff thought up on their own--which makes the mention of Blakely's "potential impact in Indiana" quite precious.

I wonder if the "practical tips" include use of the highly questionable blanket waiver the feds have been using and that have been running around the Marion County courts, I hear tell. (You can look at the fed version on USSGUIDE here.) (I actually saw one of these creatures handed out today while I was on deck for a PCR hearing, although I did not see the contents.)

And what does it mean to "deal with Blakely"? Is Blakely just some sort of annoyance to be "dealt with"?

All in all, the Blakely blurb sounds a lot like the titles of some computer software related web sites or book: Tips and Tricks for Blakely 1.0 (beta); Annoyances of the Blakely OS. In the same vein, they could have been blunt: Blakely for Dummies--which we all are, until some court in this State finally says something worth saying about Blakely. They could also have made it more like the preview of space travel: "Now that you've taken the plane to Apprendi-Land, here is what to expect on the rocket to Blakely World."

I have to find out who the speaker is going to be.