About the Commissioners
Last updated May 2012
CHAIR
JUDGE PATTI B. SARIS, District Judge for the District of Massachusetts. President Obama nominated Judge Saris to be a member and chair of the Commission on April 28, 2010. The Senate confirmed her nomination on December 22, 2010.
Judge Saris has served as a United States district judge for the District of Massachusetts since 1994, having been nominated to the federal bench by President Clinton on October 27, 1993. Prior to her appointment to the district court, Judge Saris served as an associate justice for the Massachusetts Superior Court from 1989 to 1993. From 1986 to 1989, Judge Saris served as a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She was an attorney in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1982 to 1986, and held the position of Chief of the Civil Division, Office of the United States Attorney for Massachusetts, from 1984 to 1986. From 1979 until 1981, Judge Saris served as staff counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Judge Saris received her B.A., magna cum laude, in 1973 from Radcliffe College and her J.D., cum laude, in 1976 from Harvard Law School. She served as a law clerk to the late Justice Robert Braucher of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1976 to 1977. Judge Saris is a recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Harvard University Medal of Honor (2009), a Judicial Conference of the United States Resolution of Appreciation (2005), and the Boston Bar Association's Citation of Judicial Excellence (2003).
VICE CHAIRS
MR. WILLIAM B. CARR, Jr. served as an assistant United States attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania from 1981 until his retirement in 2004. In 1987, he was designated the Justice Department contact person for that U.S. Attorney’s Office’s sentencing guidelines training. He was also the criminal division professional responsibility officer. Since his retirement, he has served as an adjunct professor at Widener Law School in Wilmington, Delaware, teaching a course in sentencing law. From 1977 through 1980, Mr. Carr was a litigation associate at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in Philadelphia. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College and his J.D. degree from Cornell Law School.
MS. KETANJI BROWN JACKSON served from 2007-2010 as a litigator at Morrison & Foerster LLP, with a practice that focused on appellate litigation in both state and federal courts, as well as litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States. From 2005 until 2007, prior to joining Morrison & Foerster LLP, Ms .Jackson worked as an assistant federal public defender in the Appeals Division of the Office of the Federal Public Defender in the District of Columbia. Ms. Jackson previously served as an assistant special counsel at the United States Sentencing Commission and as an associate with two law firms, one specializing in white-collar criminal defense, the other focusing on the negotiated settlement of mass-tort claims. She also served as a law clerk to three federal judges, including Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. Jackson received an A.B., magna cum laude, in Government from Harvard-Radcliffe College, and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where she served as a supervising editor of the Harvard Law Review.
COMMISSIONERS
CHIEF JUDGE RICARDO H. HINOJOSA served as chair (and subsequently acting chair) of the United States Sentencing Commission from 2004-2009. He became the Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in November 2009, having served on that court since 1983. He served as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law. From 1976 until 1983, he was an attorney with the Ewers & Toothaker Law Firm in McAllen, Texas, and was a partner at the time he became a judge. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1975. Judge Hinojosa received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas Ex-Students’ Association in 2001. He served as member (1979-83) and chairman (1981-83) of the Pan American University Board of Regents and in 1986 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Pan American University Alumni Association.
JUDGE BERYL A. HOWELL was appointed to the District Court on December 27, 2010. She is currently serving in her second term as a Commissioner on the United States Sentencing Commission, to which she was first appointed in November, 2004.
Judge Howell received her B.A., with honors in Philosophy, in 1978 from Bryn Mawr College and her J.D. in 1983 from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. Following law school, Judge Howell served as a law clerk to Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise in the District of New Jersey and, subsequently, as a litigation associate at the law firm of Schulte, Roth & Zabel. From 1987 until 1993, Judge Howell served as the deputy chief of the Narcotics Section and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of New York, where she was awarded the Attorney General's Director's Award for Superior Performance and commendations from the U.S. Attorney and Federal and local law enforcement agencies. From 1993 until 2003, Judge Howell served on the staff and as general counsel of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Following her government service, Judge Howell worked as executive managing director and general counsel of a consulting and technical services firm, for which she headed the largest regional office in Washington, D.C. During her tenure at the firm, Judge Howell was awarded a Director's Award by the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for her "valuable contributions" to the successful investigation and prosecution of a cyber-extortion case. Judge Howell has taught Legal Ethics as an adjunct professor at American University's Washington College of Law.
Selected Articles
Sentencing of Antitrust Offenders: What Does the Data Show? (2010)
MS. DABNEY FRIEDRICH served as associate counsel at the White House from 2003 until her appointment to the Sentencing Commission in December 2006. Prior to serving in that capacity, she was counsel to Chairman Orrin G. Hatch of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 2002-2003. From 1995 until 2002, she was an assistant U.S. attorney, first for the Southern District of California (1995-1997) and then for the Eastern District of Virginia (1998-2002). Prior to that (1994-1995), she was an associate in private practice at Latham & Watkins in San Diego. From 1992-1994, she was law clerk to now Senior District Judge Thomas F. Hogan (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia). Ms. Friedrich received her B.A. from Trinity University, her Diploma in Legal Studies from Oxford University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School.
EX-OFFICIO COMMISSIONERS
MR. ISAAC FULWOOD, JR., is the designated ex-officio member of the United States Sentencing Commission representing the United States Parole Commission. He was appointed as a U.S. Parole commissioner by President George W. Bush in 2004. Prior to his appointment, he served 29 years as a member of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., where he became the chief of police in 1989. Presently, he is an adjunct professor at the University of the District of Columbia where he teaches law enforcement subjects, community policing, and ethics in law enforcement. Mr. Fulwood is a graduate of the George Washington University Contemporary Executive Development Program and a graduate of the National Executive Institute F.B.I. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters from Southeastern University in 1992.
MR. JONATHAN J. WROBLEWSKI is the designated ex-officio member of the United States Sentencing Commission representing the Office of the Attorney General, United States Department of Justice. Mr. Wroblewski serves as Director of the Office of Policy and Legislation in the Criminal Division of the Department. Previously, Mr. Wroblewski served as a trial attorney with the Civil Rights Division, and subsequently served in the United States Sentencing Commission as Deputy General Counsel and Director of Legislative and Public Affairs. He has taught at both The George Washington University National Law Center and George Mason University School of Law, and has studied at the University of Cambridge's Institute of Criminology as a recipient of the Atlantic Fellowship in Public Policy. Mr. Wroblewski received his B.A., magna cum laude from Duke University, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Information
Visitors to the Commission's website can browse and download a wide selection of Commission documents and materials. The website features the federal sentencing guidelines, federal sentencing statistics by state and district, Commission meeting minutes and hearing transcripts, and guidelines educational materials, among many other selections. In addition, the website provides links to other federal judicial agencies and the National Association of Sentencing Commissions.
For additional information about the U.S. Sentencing Commission, contact:
Office of Legislative and Public Affairs
United States Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle, NE, Suite 2-500
Washington, DC 20002-8002
(202) 502-4500 ■ FAX: (202) 502-4699 ■ E-mail: pubaffairs@ussc.gov ■ www.ussc.gov