In Memoriam: Professor Michael Goldsmith

Michael Goldsmith, the Woodruff J. Deem Professor of Law, Brigham Young University, was more than a protege. Over the years, he became a close colleague and a true and long-lasting friend. He was a leading scholar in the law of evidence; he had his own casebook. References to his criminal procedure writings appear in a leading hornbook on criminal procedure. He was an early Commissioner on the Federal Sentencing Commission. While Goldsmith was "tough on crime," as they say, he was assuredly flexible, unlike many public figures today: he fought as a courageous but lonely minority voice on the Commission to ameliorate the sentencing disparities between crack and power cocaine, which affected disproportionately African-American offenders. Congress knew better, as did the Department of Justice, but their voices were silent. Only in private would they admit that Goldsmith was right. He lived to see his recommended changes implemented but only after he left the Commission.