October 2009
CHIEF JUDGE WILLIAM K. SESSIONS III has served as a chief district court judge for the District of Vermont since July 2002, having served as a district court judge since 1995, when he was appointed to the federal bench by President Clinton. Prior to becoming chair, Judge Sessions served as a vice chair of the United States Sentencing Commission since November 1999, when he was appointed to that post by President Clinton. Judge Sessions was re-appointed for a second term by President Bush in December 2003. From 1978-1995, he was a partner with the Middlebury firm of Sessions, Keiner, Dumont & Barnes. Judge Sessions previously served in the Office of the Public Defender for Addison County, as a professor at the Vermont Law School, and as an officer in the United States Army. He served on the Judicial Branch Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States from 2002-2007, and currently serves as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States and on the Second Circuit Judicial Council. Judge Sessions received a B.A. degree from Middlebury College and a J.D. degree from the George Washington School of Law.
JUDGE RUBEN CASTILLO has served as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 1994. From 1991-1994, he was a partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis. He was the regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1988-1991. Judge Castillo served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1984-1988 and was previously with the firm of Jenner & Block. He is an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Northwestern University School of Law, where he has taught since 1988. Judge Castillo received a B.A. degree from Loyola University of Chicago and a J.D. degree from Northwestern University School of Law, where he served on the editorial board of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Judge Castillo has been involved with the criminal justice system since 1978 when he was appointed as a deputy clerk for the local criminal courts, a position he maintained throughout college and law school.
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.
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.
MS. BERYL A. HOWELL served as executive managing director and general counsel of Stroz Friedberg, an international consulting and technical services firm from 2003-March, 2009. She is the former general counsel of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she worked from 1993-2003 for Chairman Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) on a variety of criminal justice, national security, intellectual property and other issues before the Committee. Prior to her work on the Senate staff, Ms. Howell served from 1987-1993 as an assistant U.S. attorney and deputy chief of the Narcotics Section of the U.S. Attorney¹s office in the Eastern District of New York. She was formerly an associate at Schulte, Roth & Zabel in New York City and a law clerk for the Honorable Dickinson R. Debevoise in the District of New Jersey. Ms. Howell received her B.A. With honors in Philosophy from Bryn Mawr College and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
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 Chief 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.
MR. ISAAC FULWOOD, JR., was designated as chairman of the U.S. Parole Commission by President Barack Obama on May 22, 2009. 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 was recently designated an ex-officio member of the United States Sentencing Commission, representing the Office of the Attorney General, U.S. 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.
Visitors to the Commission’s web site at www.ussc.gov can browse as well as download a wide selection of Commission documents and materials. The web site provides links to other federal judicial agencies, and, among many selections, features information about federal sentencing statistics by state and district, Commission meeting minutes and hearing transcripts, and state 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