News Release

U.S. Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle NE
Washington, DC 20002-8002

For Immediate Release:
March 1, 2007

Contact: Michael Courlander
Public Affairs Officer
(202) 502-4597

SENATE CONFIRMS TWO SENTENCING COMMISSIONERS
Beryl A. Howell Reconfirmed and Dabney Langhorne Friedrich Confirmed

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 1, 2007) – Last night, on February 28, 2007, the United States Senate confirmed the nominations of Ms. Beryl A. Howell of Washington, D.C., and Ms. Dabney Langhorne Friedrich of Alexandria, Virginia, as members of the United States Sentencing Commission. President George W. Bush had recess appointed Ms. Howell and Ms. Friedrich to the Commission on December 12, 2006. The Senate confirmation will result in a reappointment for Ms. Howell and a first appointment to the Commission for Ms. Friedrich.

"Dabney Friedrich brings to the Sentencing Commission a wealth of valuable knowledge and experience, and we are, of course, delighted to retain Beryl Howell as a member of the Commission," said Commission chair, Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa.

Ms. Beryl A. Howell was first confirmed as a member of the United States Sentencing Commission on November 21, 2004. Ms. Howell serves as executive managing director and general counsel of Stroz Friedberg, LLC. She is the former general counsel of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she worked on a variety of criminal justice, technology and other issues before the Committee. Prior to her work on the Senate staff, Ms. Howell served as an assistant U.S. attorney and deputy chief of the Narcotics Section of the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York. She was formerly an associate at Schulte, Roth & Zabel in New York City and a clerk for the Honorable Dickinson R. Debevoise in the District of New Jersey. During her tenure on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ms. Howell worked for Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) (chairman and ranking member on the full Committee), and for the Technology and the Law Subcommittee and the Antitrust, Business Rights and Competition Subcommittee. Ms. Howell received her B.A. 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 the commencement of her current position with the Sentencing Commission. 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.

By statute, the Sentencing Commission is composed of seven voting members and two nonvoting ex-officio members. No more than four commissioners may be members of the same political party, and no more than three may be federal judges. Other members of the Sentencing Commission are Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa (chair), Judge Ruben Castillo (vice chair), Chief Judge William K. Sessions III (vice chair), Commissioner John R. Steer (vice chair), and Commissioner Michael E. Horowitz.


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