News Release

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

UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION NAMES JUDITH SHEON AS STAFF DIRECTOR

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.


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