Beverly Martin, who retired from the Eleventh Circuit two years ago, said that during her earlier time on the trial court bench in the Northern District of Georgia, she paid careful attention to what she said to defendants during sentencing hearings.  

“The defendant that you’re sentencing is going to remember every word you say for the rest of their lives, or certainly the rest of the time they are incarcerated,” said Martin during a discussion on sentencing last week sponsored by the Berkeley Judicial Institute. “So I think it’s really important to find something to give them hope.”