About the Program

• Judges will host, either live in their Courtrooms or over a secure Zoom link, a mock sentencing hearing not lasting more than one hour in mid to late-October 2025 to early November to allow classes or groups of four students to present a mock sentencing hearing.
• We welcome classes from all disciplines.
• We expect the groups to consist of one student representing the State, one student representing the defendant, one person representing  the probation office, and one person representing the defendant who may present a colloquy.
• The judge will hold the hearing like the actual sentencing hearing and apply all the factors of mitigation including those set by the United States Congress in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a).
• We arranged a private YouTube link for professors and students as a preview for the nature of the sentencing hearing.
• Three attached packages contain a hypothetical Indictment, Presentence Investigation Report, Victim Impact Statements, and Mitigation Memorandum. They are models of the 2025 packages, which will cover these topics:
  1. Possession with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm by a felon
  2. Bribery
  3. Embezzlement
  4. Reentry after Deportation
  5. Mail and wire fraud

  The new materials will be available this summer.

• We are not expecting the students to submit written material. We look at this example as an opportunity for the students to review and present the material as they would in a sentencing hearing.
• We view the sentencing hearing as a unique prism into the criminal justice system as the presentence investigation report details the events of the conviction, the full background of the defendant, and the concerns set by the United States Congress and Pennsylvania General Assembly.
• We will schedule the mock sentencing hearing either live in our courthouses or over Zoom depending on the convenience of your students and the judges.
• Members of the Pennsylvania Bar are available to answer any questions.
• United States District Judge Mark A. Kearney is available to discuss this program with any professor by contacting him at [email protected].