Sentencing with GungaWeb : Speculations on the Value of Rule-Based Systems in a World of Badly Drafted Statutes

A current commercial web-based JDSS in New York State criminal law assists hundreds of judges statewide with questions of sentencing, lesser included offenses, plea bargaining and statutory interpretation. Maintenance of this system’s rule base with respect to sentencing has revealed instances where interactions between statutes imply conflicting rules. Resolution of such conflicts requires a varied set of strategies; occasionally no satisfactory resolution is possible. Most such problems have been found to arise not from open textured terms deliberately employed, but from avoidable deficiencies in drafting. Rather than view these anomalies as limitations on the rule based approach, one may view them as an opportunity to promote a resolution by consensus preferable to the traditional common law approach of scattered lower court decisions ultimately clarified by authoritative appellate ruling. The current call for re-codification of the NY penal laws presents an opportunity to employ such systems in a systematic way when drafting legislation.