Subscribe: FEDERAL SENTENCING: A GOOD DEPARTURE IS HARD TO BEAT
FEDERAL SENTENCING: A GOOD DEPARTURE IS HARD TO BEAT
The central purpose for the enactment of the United States Sentencing Guidelines was to obtain uniformity in sentencing on a national level. While the Guidelines were intended to eliminate Judge’s personalities and personal proclivities as well as eliminate disparities in regions or districts, the simple fact of the matter is that there are some districts in which downward departures are the rule and other districts where downward departures are either the exception or just never done. Even within districts, the guidelines have done nothing to address the disparity among different judges with regard to their views of downward departures in similar cases. In addition, federal prosecutors are including in written plea agreements a stipulation that no additional downward departure beyond those concessions or agreements contained in the written plea agreement can be sought by the Defendant in what is an obvious effort …
