U.S. Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle NE
Washington, DC 20002-8002
For Immediate Release:
January 17, 2006
Contact: Michael Courlander
Public Affairs Officer
(202) 502-4597
WASHINGTON, D.C. (January 17, 2006) - The U.S. Sentencing Commission announced on January 10 the appointment of Judith W. Sheon as its new staff director, succeeding Timothy McGrath. Ms. Sheon has served as the Commission’s interim staff director for the last six months and as the principal guidelines drafter and special counsel for the Sentencing Commission since December 1995.
“Judy Sheon has provided invaluable service to the Sentencing Commission in her ten years with our agency, and she has excelled in every capacity in which she has served,” said Sentencing Commission Chair Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa. “Judy brings to the position her exemplary team-building skills, a stalwart work ethic, a clear-headed approach to problem solving, and her devotion to the Commission. The Commission is delighted that she has accepted this most important position.”
Judith W. Sheon graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Orleans
in 1981 and cum laude from Tulane Law School in 1985. In 1986, she clerked
for the Honorable Morey L. Sear in the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Louisiana, and from 1987 to 1990, she was a staff attorney
and supervising staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the
Third Circuit. She served as an assistant legislative counsel in the Office
of the Legislative Counsel for the United States House of Representatives from
1990 to 1995, where she specialized in defense readiness issues and nuclear
weapons programs.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission, an independent agency in the judicial branch
of the federal government, was organized in 1985 to develop a national sentencing
policy for the federal courts. The resulting sentencing guidelines structure
the courts’ sentencing discretion to help ensure that similar offenders
who commit similar offenses receive similar sentences.