It Starts With The Plea Agreement
When you get your plea agreement, it will most likely come with a two-point downward variance for acceptance of responsibility for your crimes.
You will then be eligible for a third point at sentencing.
Those two points will be explicitly provided as per the terms of the plea agreement, and then the third comes “upon motion of the United States Attorney,” where they can ask for that third point of downward departure.
Sometimes, defendants won’t get that third point of downward departure if they obstructed justice throughout the course of their apprehension, or if they misbehaved while on pre-trial. At the end of the day, it’s entirely at the discretion of the United States attorney.
Then, in many cases, most true first time offenders are entitled to another two-point downward departure thanks to the 821 amendments to the sentencing guidelines from a few years back.
The “points” we’re talking about are based on the offense level provided by a defendant’s instant offenses. Once added together, those points, and the sentencing guideline range, can be found on the table below:
Then, you take all of your “downward departure points,” and subtract them from your offense level to find your new range.
For questions, or to ensure your attorney is getting you all the downward departures for which you are eligible, call us: 407-434-0175.