Marvin E. Frankel

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Marvin E. Frankel
Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
In office
October 21, 1965 – September 30, 1978
Appointed byLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byGregory Francis Noonan
Succeeded byAbraham David Sofaer
Personal details
Born(1920-07-26)July 26, 1920
Queens College (BA)
Columbia University (LLB
)

Marvin Earle Frankel (July 26, 1920 – March 3, 2002) was an American lawyer who served as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was also a professor at Columbia Law School and a legal scholar whose views helped to establish sentencing guidelines for the federal courts.

Education and career

Born in

Queens College in 1943. His service was followed by a Bachelor of Laws from Columbia Law School in 1948. He also served as the editor-in-chief of the Columbia Law Review, and was thereafter an associate in law at Columbia Law School from 1948 to 1949. He was an assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States from 1949 to 1956, thereafter entering private practice in New York City from 1956 to 1962. He was a professor at Columbia Law School from 1962 to 1965.[4]

Federal judicial service

On September 2, 1965, Frankel was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Gregory Francis Noonan. Frankel was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1965, and received his commission the same day. Frankel resigned from the bench on September 30, 1978.[4]

Post judicial service

After resigning from the federal bench, Frankel returned to private practice in New York City.

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP from 1983 until his death on March 3, 2002, in New York City.[4]

Controversy

Despite being a pioneer of United States Sentencing Guidelines, Frankel in 1976 sentenced Bernard Bergman, a wealthy, philanthropic and albeit non-violent and non-dangerous rabbi, to only 4 months in prison despite a statutory maximum of 8 years. Rabbi Bergman plead guilty to 2 of 11 counts, including defrauding his nursing homes of their Medicaid funds of 2.5 million dollars. Frankel argued in his opinion that courts will not lessen sentencing because of past philanthropic/religious work, just as they would not aggravate sentence for a defendant's notoriety, but prosecutors attacked the sentence as lenient.[1]

Legacy

Over a career of more than 50 years, Frankel traveled widely campaigning for

Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now renamed Human Rights First) and served as its chairman for many years.[citation needed
]

In 1977, Frankel imposed a $5,000 fine and ten-month sentence on the former

United States Supreme Court declined to hear appeals by the defendants and left intact their fines and sentences imposed by Judge Frankel.[8]

Frankel's short 1973 book, Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order, exercised a principal influence on the sentencing reform movement that had a significant influence on American sentencing law in the late 20th century.[

United States Supreme Court declared the Sentencing Reform Act unconstitutional insofar as it made the guidelines mandatory.[citation needed] The guidelines remain influential in federal sentencing, however, and Frankel's ideas continue to influence sentencing reform in the United States and in other countries.[citation needed
]

Frankel's papers from 1963 to 2002 are housed in the Special Collections of Lloyd Sealy Library, John Jay College of Criminal Justice.[9] His archived papers include correspondence, writings, speeches, legal documents, opinion books, media and ephemera documenting his career.

Selected publications

  • The Grand Jury: An Institution on Trial
  • Sentencing: Helping Judges Do Their Jobs
  • The Search for Truth: An Umpireal View, 123
    U. Pa. L. Rev.
    1031 (1975)
  • Criminal Sentences: Law Without Order

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Greenhouse, Steven (5 March 2002). "Marvin Frankel, Federal Judge and Pioneer of Sentencing Guidelines, Dies at 81". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Distinguished Weequahic Alumni, Weequahic High School Alumni Association. Accessed December 19, 2019. "Marvin Frankel (1937) a jurist and human rights advocate."
  3. ^ a b Greenberg, Jack, "What a Life!", Columbia Law Review, volume 102, number 7, November 2002, page 1744
  4. ^ a b c d Marvin E. Frankel at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
  5. ^ The New York Times, March 12, 1977; Facts on File, XXXVII (March 19, 1977), p. 203; Jackson Clarion-Ledger, April 3, 1980
  6. ^ The New York Times, January 30, 1977; Jackson Clarion-Ledger, April 3, 1980
  7. Facts on File
    , XXXVII (February 12, 1977), p. 751; The New York Times, January 30, 1977
  8. ^ Facts on File, XXXVIII (October 6, 1978), p. 751
  9. ^ "Manuscript Collections". Lloyd Sealy Library Special Collections, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Retrieved 5 March 2013.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
1965–1978 		Succeeded by
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