What Acquitted Conduct Says about Justice Kavanaugh and Federal Defendants and Supervised Release The Supreme Court has changed drastically over the last two years. With the inclusion of both Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh to the highest court in the Country, there are plenty of questions on what way things will go for federal defendants …
The PSI/PSR A Pre-Sentence Investigation and Pre-Sentence Report (PSI or PSR) are done by the US Probation Office to make recommendations to the presiding judge about your sentence. This report can make the difference of YEARS off of a sentence if handled correctly. Knowing what it should say, should not say, and needs to contain …
Sentencing The process by which a federal sentence is pronounced goes in the following steps: a sentencing range is calculated by the probation officer and put into their full report to the judge. This report is called a Pre-sentence Investigation Report (“PSI” or “PSR”). Then the defense reviews the PSI for errors and submits objections …
We’ve written a lot here about federal supervised release and the conditions that allow for a judge to release our clients early from their term of supervision. One of the places we get our information is from a policy document that guides federal probation departments. Monograph 109 This document, called Monograph 109 which is a …
Calculating Criminal History Weight The final piece to sentencing calculations takes into consideration criminal history. Everything from misdemeanor driving crimes (like driving with a suspended license) to prior major felonies, the PSI/R considers the entirety of a defendant’s criminal history. With no criminal history at all, zero points are assigned. Every other instance of past …
The Sentence Reduction Potential of Dimaya and Johnson On April 17, 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States published an opinion in an immigration case called Sessions v. Dimaya. This case caused waves because the left-leaning justices split with right-leaning justices evenly at 4-4 and the deciding vote was the freshman justice Gorsuch. In …
Post-Sentencing in a Federal Criminal Case Now what? Now a defendant can feel like they are blowing in the wind without an advocate to guide them through this difficult period. Many prison consultants make a lot of money just telling people what to expect when they get to prison. We do that, too, but more …
The Pre-Sentence Investigation Report This document, written by the local Probation Department, is usually abbreviated as the PSI or PSR. Either way you hear it said, it is referring to the same document. We will pick PSI and use that for the purposes of this write-up. The PSI is always sealed and only available to …
Federal Sentencing: Enhancements and Mitigations Read More »
Part 1: Base Offense Levels The first part of this series will focus on the foundation of a federal sentence. It is referred to as the “Base Offense Level” and is where the calculations of a federal sentence recommendation starts. This is, by a wide margin, the most simple piece to federal sentencing. All federal …
Federal Sentencing Primer After a plea deal is signed, which happens in well over 90% of federal criminal prosecutions, the next phase in a case is sentencing. Most first-time offenders really don’t know exactly how this sentencing is done or considered by federal courts, prosecutors, and judges. While defense attorney’s are supposed to do a …
