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Enhancement Factors

By Baker Associates

For a criminal defendant, an enhancement factor is something he or she wants to avoid if at all possible. Simply put, an enhancement factor is a factor that can be considered by the trial court in imposing a more severe sentence on the defendant than would otherwise be imposed in the absence of such a factor. For most offenses, Tennessee law presumes that the defendant will be sentenced at the minimum of the applicable sentencing range unless enhancement factors apply. Thus, avoiding enhancement factors is of critical importance in many critical trials. The Tennessee Code sets out a list of enhancement factors the court may consider in imposing a sentence. When the court decides to use an enhancement factor to ?enhance? a defendant?s sentence, the court must specifically state that it is applying the factor and set out how much weight it is placing on that factor and why...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on March 05, 2010 (boomark / email).