Dive Brief:
- Judge Jerry Baxter has scheduled a resentencing hearing for the three educators who received the harshest punishments in the Atlanta cheating scandal.
- Earlier this month, Baxter sentenced Sharon Davis Williams, Tamara Cotman, and Michael Pitts to serve a 20-year sentence (seven to be served in prison and the rest on probation), which was double what prosecutors had recommended.
- The decision to reconsider the punishment is viewed as unusual since none of the lawyers representing the administrators filed a motion for a resentencing. The hearing is set for April 30.
Dive Insight:
"For the court, on its own, to reach out and say, 'come back in, we're going to re-sentence you,' is very unusual. That being said, there is nothing in this case that has been customary or usual," Philip Holloway, a legal analyst, told USA Today.
What made this case particularly unusual was that it was tried under the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is usually used in cases revolving around the mob or gangsters. The point of RICO is to tie higher-ups to a crime, even if they didn't necessarily get their hands dirty, so to speak. With the cheating scandal, the decision to use RICO was made so that administrators who didn't necessarily erase test questions would still be punished for complicity. RICO, however, carries harsher punishments, including a 20-year prison sentence.
The prosecutors had recommended that the three top administrators get five years, which may indicate what Baxter will change the punishment to.