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Federal judges will be limited from enhancing defendants’ sentences based on conduct a jury acquitted them of, a practice that has drawn condemnation from a wide range of civil liberties groups, lawmakers, and jurists.

The U.S. Sentencing Commission, a bipartisan panel that creates guidelines for the federal judiciary, voted unanimously Wednesday to adopt an amendment prohibiting judges from using acquitted conduct when calculating a defendant’s sentencing range under those guidelines. The only exception is if the conduct “also establishes, in whole or in part, the instant offense of conviction.”

“Not guilty means not guilty,” U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves, the chair of the Sentencing Commission, said in a press release. “By enshrining this basic fact within the federal sentencing guidelines, the Commission is taking an important step to protect the credibility of our courts and criminal justice system.”

Although it sounds antithetical to what everyone is taught about the American justice system, at the sentencing phase of a trial, federal judges could enhance defendants’ sentences for conduct they were acquitted of if the judge decided it was more likely than nota lower standard of evidence than “beyond a reasonable doubt”that the defendant committed those offenses. This raised defendants’ scores under the federal sentencing guidelines, leading to significantly longer prison sentences.

For example, Reason ‘s Billy Binion reported on the case of Dayonta McClinton, who was charged with robbing a CVS pharmacy in Indiana at gunpoint and killing one of his accomplices during a dispute after the robbery. A jury convicted McClinton of robbing the pharmacy but acquitted him of killing his accomplice. A federal judge nevertheless used the accomplice’s death to enhance McClinton’s sentence from the 5771 months recommended under the guidelines to 228 months.

McClinton filed a petition to the Supreme Court challenging the use of acquitted conduct at his sentencing, but despite several Supreme Court justices previously expressing doubt about the constitutionality of the practiceincluding Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomasthe Court declined to take up the case last June. Reuters reported that four of the justices signaled they would defer to the Sentencing Commission.

The Justice Department opposed a previous proposal by the Sentencing Commission to limit the use of acquitted conduct.

“Curtailing courts’ discretion to consider conduct related to acquitted counts would be a significant departure from long-standing sentencing practice, Supreme Court precedent and the principles of our guidelines,” Jessica Aber, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, testified before the Commission last February.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the new policy.

The practice also outraged members of Congress. For the past several years, Sens. Chuck Grassley (RIowa) and Dick Durbin (DIll.) have introduced legislation to ban the use of acquitted conduct at sentencing in federal trials, but so far none have passed.

In a statement today, Durbin continued to call for the passage of his and Grassley’s Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act, saying “this unjust practice must be prohibited under federal law.”

“Under our Constitution, defendants can only be convicted of a crime if a jury of their peers finds they are guilty beyond a reasonable doubt,” Durbin said. “However, federal law inexplicably allows judges to override a jury verdict of ‘not guilty’ by sentencing defendants based on acquitted conduct. This practice is inconsistent with the Constitution’s guarantees of due process and the right to a jury trial. That’s why I applaud the Sentencing Commission’s important step to limit the use of acquitted conduct.”

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Who were the suspected gunmen in Bondi Beach terror attack?

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Who were the suspected gunmen in Bondi Beach terror attack?

A father and son have been identified as the suspected gunmen in the terror attack on a Jewish event in Bondi Beach which killed at least 15 people.

More than 1,000 people were celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah on the beach on Sunday evening when two people opened fire on them.

Those killed in the attack range from 10 years of age to 87, including a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor, while 38 others have been injured.

One of the alleged gunmen has been named by New South Wales (NSW) police as 24-year-old Naveed Akram, while the other has been identified as his 50-year-old father Sajid Akram.

How did they carry out the attack?

Footage shows the gunmen start firing into the crowd from a footbridge that leads over a car park to the beach.

Sky News has identified from the footage that the younger gunman was using a rifle, while the older one was using a semi-automatic shotgun.

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What’s been said about the gunmen

Police commissioner Mal Lanyon said officers searched two properties in connection with the suspects and found that the father had six firearms licenced to him.

Follow live: 15 people and gunman killed in shooting

He said they were confident that those firearms were the six found at the scene of the shooting.

More footage from the scene showed that a man, later identified as 43-year-old fruit shop owner Ahmed al Ahmed, tackled and disarmed one of the gunmen, believed to be the father Sajid, before pointing his own weapon at him, which was empty.

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Moment ‘hero’ disarmed gunman

The footage then showed the disarmed gunman running towards where the other gunman was located. Mr Ahmed was shot twice in the incident and required surgery, his family said.

The shooting is estimated to have gone on for roughly 10 minutes from 6.47pm. Eventually, the police took down the gunmen 75 seconds apart on the bridge.

Read more:
The victims of Bondi terror attack
Eyewitness accounts of ‘utter panic and chaos’

The father was killed at the scene by police, while the son was shot and wounded.

He is being treated at a hospital, according to police. Mr Lanyon said he “may well” face criminal charges.

In an update on Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told ABC that the suspect was in a coma.

He also said there were a range of IEDs and “explosive devices” in their car that they intended to use to “cause further damage”.

What do we know about their backgrounds?

Sajid Akram arrived in Australia in 1998 on a student visa and transferred to a partner visa three years later, before becoming a permanent resident, according to Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. Officials have not disclosed what country he migrated from.

He had his gun licence for approximately a decade and held a gun club membership, Mr Lanyon said.

The younger suspect was an Australian-born citizen who first came to the attention of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in October 2019, Mr Albanese told reporters.

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Younger gunman was part of 2019 ‘investigation’

“He was examined on the basis of being associated with others and the assessment was made that there was no indication of any ongoing threat or threat of him engaging in violence,” Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese said the suspect was investigated for six months over his connections to two people who later went to jail, one man for planning terror attacks.

He said he was not put on a watch list because the investigation uncovered no evidence that he was planning or considering any act of antisemitic violence.

Neither the father nor son have been on the ASIO’s radar since the 7 October Hamas attacks, he added.

What do we know about the motives?

New South Wales Police designated the attack a terrorist incident, and Mr Lanyon said a “significant investigation” would be led by counterterrorism and that “no stone will be left unturned”.

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Community mourns after attack

“When I asked for calm, that is really important,” he said. “This is not a time for retribution. This is a time to allow the police to do their duty. So police are responding to make sure that all of the community is safe.”

Mr Albanese called the massacre an act of antisemitic terrorism that struck at the heart of the nation.

On Monday, he said the attackers were “two evil people… driven by ideology” whose actions were the result of an “extreme perversion of Islam”.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said after the attack: “This attack was designed to target Sydney’s Jewish community on the first day of Hanukkah. What should have been a night of peace and joy celebrated in that community with families and supporters has been shattered by this horrifying, evil attack.”

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Tesla warns of massive lease price hikes coming at end of the month, the prices are crazy

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Tesla warns of massive lease price hikes coming at end of the month, the prices are crazy

Tesla has been pulling every demand lever it can find to end the year on a high note, resulting in some of the most aggressive lease pricing we’ve ever seen.

The automaker is now signaling that these deals are expiring at the end of the month, and the price jumps are going to be significant.

We are talking about monthly payments increasing by up to 67% in some cases.

For the last few weeks, the story has been all about the $299/month Model 3 lease. It’s a headline-grabbing number that frankly makes the math of driving a gas car look terrible.

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But Tesla is subsidizing this pricing. It’s not sustainable and the automaker is doing it temporarily to compensate for low demand. It looks like Tesla is planning a hard reset on pricing once the Q4 delivery wave crashes on December 31.

Tesla announced a price increase coming on December 26th to encourage people to take delivery as soon as possible:

Here is the breakdown of the signaled price increases:

  • Model 3 Premium RWD: Increasing to $499/month with $3,000 down. (Currently ~$299/mo with $1,500 down. That is a massive 67% increase in monthly payment, plus a doubled down payment.)
  • Model 3 Premium AWD: Increasing to $549/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$449/mo with $1,500 down. A 22% increase.)
  • Model 3 Performance: Increasing to $749/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$699/mo with $1,500 down. A 7% increase.)

The Model Y, which is currently one of the best best-selling vehicles in the world, is not spared either:

  • Model Y Premium RWD: Increasing to $549/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$449/mo with $0 down. A 22% increase.)
  • Model Y Premium AWD: Increasing to $649/month with $3,000 down. (Up from ~$479/mo with $0 down. A 35% increase.)

Even the Cybertruck is seeing a bump, though less dramatic percentage-wise:

  • Cybertruck AWD: Increasing to $849/month with $5,000 down. (Up from ~$729/mo with the same down payment. A 16% increase.)

This puts significant pressure on buyers to take delivery within the next two weeks. Tesla is known for these end-of-quarter pushes, but usually, the incentives simply vanish. In this case, we are seeing a reversion to standard pricing that highlights just how subsidized the current offers are.

Electrek’s Take

This is the classic Tesla end-of-quarter playbook, but the contrast here is sharper than usual and a focus on leases.

I’ve said before that the $299 Model 3 lease is practically a no-brainer. When you look at the total cost of ownership, it competes with used Toyotas.

A 67% increase on the base Model 3 is wild. It shows that Tesla was willing to burn significant margin to clear inventory and compensate for lower demand following the end of the tax credit.

It remains true that the best time to buy a Tesla is at the end of a quarter and ideally, at the end of the year.

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Sports

The NHL’s best this week: Get set for the next round of the Battle of Florida

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The NHL's best this week: Get set for the next round of the Battle of Florida

On Monday, the next installment of the Battle of Florida will be contested between the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers, a rivalry that has certainly intensified in recent years.

The two teams entered the league one year apart. The Bolts in 1992 and the Cats a year later.

Although the Panthers miraculously made it to the Stanley Cup Final in their third season, the state of Florida wasn’t truly on the hockey map until the Lightning won the title in 2004.

But for most of the two teams’ existence, the rivalry was purely geographical, with the hockey world largely focusing on other feuds or thriving franchises. Despite achieving far less success in the 23 years after they made the Cup Final in 1996, the Panthers won the lion’s share of games against the Lightning. In that same 23-year span, the Cats had a sub-.500 record against the Lightning in only seven seasons, and the club’s all-time record against their in-state rival is 79-54-29.

But this truly became the “Battle” when both teams became great, and that has been in the past six seasons. The pair met in the playoffs for the first time in 2021, which is the perfect start of this era — Tampa Bay was coming off a Stanley Cup win in 2020 (in the bubble) and dispatched Florida in six games en route to their second straight Cup. The Lightning would sweep the Panthers the next season before bowing out to Colorado in the Cup Final, marking three straight trips to the Final.

Then it was Florida’s turn to do the exact same thing, making their three straight trips to the Cup Final (with the streak still active), and beating Tampa Bay 4-1 in back-to-back first rounds in 2024 and 2025 en route to Cup wins. Their playoff records against each other are identical: two series wins, 10-10 overall.

And this feud has turned ugly, bloody and downright nasty. Two preseason games (!) this October saw Lightning and Panthers players maul each other on the ice to the tune of a combined 508 penalty minutes and 26 misconducts. “It just got silly, got stupid,” lamented Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues, describing the chaos that some hockey fans absolutely relish. There were so many ejections that Florida’s Niko Mikkola got ejected, didn’t leave and then assisted on a goal, that had to be called back upon review.

It took a while to get there, but the Battle of Florida is now one of the most bitter rivalries in hockey and has no signs of slowing down. Both teams have thrown haymakers (literally and figuratively) at the other throughout the years. Although this might hurt many traditionalists to hear, the rivalry is an offshoot of both team’s playoff and championship success and that means — if you’re judging this purely on glory at the highest levels — Florida is cemented as the current “State of Hockey.” I don’t make the rules, people, I just bring them to light.

The Panthers and Lightning drop the puck on Monday in Tampa Bay. It’s without a doubt one of the biggest games of the week.

Jump ahead:
Games of the week
What I loved this weekend
Hart Trophy candidates
Social post of the week
Stick taps

Biggest games of the week

I have my eyes firmly on every game the Minnesota Wild, Pittsburgh Penguins and Edmonton Oilers play this week. Purely because I want to see the immediate impact the traded players will be making. And there’s some overlap!

The Quinn Hughes trade was a Friday night shocker. Minnesota! What a coup!

The Wild play the Washington Capitals on Tuesday (one of the teams rumored to be in on the Hughes trade talks), followed by the the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, and the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday (a big test). Before the Avs, they’ll host the Oilers on Saturday … when I hope Tristan Jarry will be starting, and we get some sort of Hughes scoring chance on the new Oilers goalie.

Aside from the showdown in Minnesota, the Oilers have the Boston Bruins on Thursday and Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday (a big offensive test).

Jarry won his first game with the Oilers on Saturday, a 6-3 victory in Toronto.

The Penguins, with Stuart Skinner and Brett Kulak now in the mix, face the Ottawa Senators on Thursday, then have a home-and-home series against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday and Sunday.

But I have a big red circle around Tuesday on my calendar, because the Oilers face the Penguins. Hockey trade bingo! It’s always awesome when traded players face their old teams right away. It’s like getting early and tangible “who won the trade?” argument fodder based on how the traded players perform. Let’s hope the coaches help out the narrative and start both Jarry and Skinner in this one.


Other key games this week

MONDAY

8 p.m. ET | ESPN+


TUESDAY

7 p.m. ET | ESPN+


7 p.m. ET | ESPN+


7 p.m. ET | ESPN+


WEDNESDAY

7 p.m. ET | ESPN+


THURSDAY

7 p.m. ET | ESPN+


FRIDAY

7 p.m. ET | ESPN+


10 p.m. ET | ESPN+


SATURDAY

12:30 p.m. ET | NHL Network


7 p.m. ET | ESPN+


SUNDAY

1 p.m. ET | NHL Network


What I loved this weekend

The San Jose Sharks are a lot of people’s second favorite team, and they made a whole bunch of fans happy — outside of Pittsburgh, of course — on Saturday. Down 5-1 with 12 minutes to play in the game, the Sharks scored four unanswered goals in the third period, then won the game in overtime. And no, this was not Stuart Skinner‘s debut — his immigration paperwork was held up, so it was Arturs Silovs in goal for the Penguins.

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1:51

Sharks score 5 unanswered to rally for OT win vs. Penguins

The Sharks put five unanswered goals past the Penguins over the third period and overtime in a huge comeback win.

This marks only the 26th time in NHL history a team was down four goals in the third period and won the game.

This is where I tell Maple Leafs fans to look away. Because the ESPN Research team dug even deeper, and found that there were only two instances of teams that came back from five-goal deficits in the third period and won the game.

The two teams that pulled off this feat were the Calgary Flames in 1986-87 and the St. Louis Blues in 2000-01.

Their opponents on both occasions? Yes, the Toronto Maple Leafs.


Hart Trophy contenders if the season ended today

Nathan MacKinnon obviously gets a spot. He still leads the league in points and in goals, and has points in five straight games, with nine points total in that span.

Connor McDavid is second in scoring, back to his “I’ll score at will” video game mode, and is also on a five-game point streak, where he has a silly 15 points. Casual Connor, no big deal.

play

0:49

Connor McDavid lights the lamp for Oilers

Connor McDavid lights the lamp for Oilers

Finally, enough is enough; I’m putting Logan Thompson on my Hart Trophy list! I’m all for goalie Hart pushes. Deal with it.

The Caps are third in the Metro Division, and Thompson has an excellent .922 save percentage through 23 games. Scott Wedgewood will likely rotate into this spot on occasion given how much of an absolute wagon the Avs are this season. Aside from his last game where he let in five goals, Wedgewood has had a terrific stretch, including a shutout.


Social media post of the week

I said this last week, and I’m serious — the 6-7 trend is getting out of control! Now it’s on the back of warmup jerseys. STOP IT NOW!

On to my actual favorite social media from this week. As my fellow pro wrestling heads out there know, John Cena’s final WWE match took place on Saturday (and Cena’s submission to Gunther ignited a reaction from the WWE crowd more heinous than a lengthy offside review). A part of the homage this week was reflecting on the jerseys Cena wore over the years, including a few hockey ones. The Oilers, Kings, Jets and Canadiens were among the pro teams to share posts with Cena wearing their threads:

The funniest one was the Habs, because Cena mimics shooting a puck in his entrance. Which confirms in WWE retirement he will be signing with Montreal, adding bottom-six depth for a playoff push.


Stick taps

I’m going to give my ESPN colleague (and, of course, Stanley Cup champion) T.J. Oshie a lot of credit. He had a “welcome to TV” moment where, because he’s a retired NHL player-turned-citizen of hockey by being on national broadcasts, he received a Stadium Series jersey like the rest of us:

The problem is, Oshie never played for the Lightning or the Bruins. But we egged him on and like the true good sport that he is, he put on the Boston jersey, explaining that it resembled his old Warroad team colors.

What a sight. I’m sure it was equally jarring to see “Oshie” on the back of the Boston jersey, and perhaps more jarring to see No. 77, Oshie’s number in the NHL that also happened to be Ray Bourque’s number — which the Bruins retired in 2001.

I will jump in here and say that I believe that the retired number rule applies only for active players on that team. Celebrities, analysts, media types, or really anyone that wants to customize a jersey … pick whatever number you want. You’re not suiting up for the team with that number. It’s fine. We can let that one go.

If you want to nominate someone for stick taps in a future column, reach out to me on social media.

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