Are Judge’s Choices In Accepting Recommendations Limited?
When you’re in federal court facing time in federal prison, is it possible for your judge to go below a jointly recommended sentence from the U.S. attorney and your defense attorney?
This question comes from an ongoing discussion in our Facebook Group, which is also called Federal Prison Tips.
The answer: Absolutely. The judge can do whatever he or she wants.
When you’re using or consulting with an expert sentencing mitigation firm like Federal Prison Tips, the Legal Advocacy Center, or even Sam Mengel, you’re bound to learn all kinds of sentencing mitigation techniques.
The specific client that comes to mind with this discussion used a mitigation notebook, otherwise known as a mitigation binder. In most cases, it’s an excellent idea that we recommend for our clients as they prepare for federal court. This is a collection of background information regarding the defendant’s backstory, upbringing, along with details surrounding the defendant’s level of involvement in the crime and letters from community members, which are meant to detail the importance of the defendant’s contributions to the community at large.
Combined, these documents humanize the defendant and create a holistic picture of the person being punished before the sentence is decided.
This particular client of ours had a jointly recommended sentence of approximately 30 months. The judge went under this recommendation to a year and a day based on the sentencing mitigation binder, as well as the client’s behavior after arrest but before sentencing.