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Federal Sentencing Guidelines no Longer Dictate What a Federal Judge Can do at Sentencing in a Federal Criminal Case

By Walin & Klarich

The United States Supreme Court in Gall vs. United States held that the federal sentencing "guidelines" are no longer binding on what sentence a federal judge decides to hand down in any particular case. The US Supreme Court recently held that the federal judge now has broad discretion to sentence a criminal defendant to a higher or lower sentence than the guidelines provide. The judges' decision will only be reversed upon a showing of an "abuse of discretion" which is an extremely difficult thing to prove on appeal. What this means to anyone facing a federal criminal case is that you need to have a criminal defense law firm on your side who knows the critical importance of adequately preparing a powerful sentencing brief on your behalf. In addition your law firm must be able to devote the time and attention to your case and be able to present the most powerful witnesses and evidence at your behalf at the sentencing hearing...continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on July 14, 2008 (boomark / email).