Posted on 10/30/2003 2:23:00 PM PST by Tumbleweed_Connection
WASHINGTON (AP) - Beginning this week, federal judges have less freedom to treat some defendants more leniently because of special circumstances, such as gambling addiction. Judges had been able to hand out lighter punishments than outlined in national guidelines if the defendant had a gambling addiction, had merely a bit part in a crime or accepted responsibility for wrongdoing. The U.S. Sentencing Commission banned those exceptions and restricted when judges can give convicted criminals leniency for claiming hardship because of their families or aberrant behavior. The rules are a spinoff of a law passed by Congress last spring to limit judges' freedom in sentencing. The law has angered judges, who want it repealed and are displeased with the Justice Department for recommending it. The Sentencing Commission rules were passed this month on an emergency basis but could be made permanent next year. Criminal lawyer groups and other organizations complained in letters to congressional leaders this week that the commission went too far, especially considering a new commission report that found that judges, acting on their own, were not giving people as many reduced sentences as some have thought. Federal judges in 2001 gave defendants lighter sentences than recommended in guidelines less than 11 percent of the time, when acting alone without following a government request, the study found. During the congressional debate, proponents of the law said that 18 percent of federal criminals that year got lighter sentences - a figure that didn't take into account sentences sought by the government. At issue is the sentencing system that gives judges a range of possible punishments for most crimes. Judges have some freedom to "downwardly depart" from the guidelines and hand down a lesser punishment, or "upwardly depart" and give longer sentences. "The number of cases in which judges are willy-nilly granting downward departures seems fairly small," said Michael O'Neill, a Sentencing Commission member, but some people remain concerned about it. O'Neill said Thursday the changes leave judges some flexibility to give lighter sentences, but also require them to be conscientious in documenting their decisions. With the changes that took effect Monday, judges cannot dip below the guidelines just because of a plea agreement or general mitigating circumstances, two factors that judges frequently use, critics said.
I'm sorry son, I am going to sentence you to them manimum for your crime...now, if you had been addicted to gambling, I would have done all I could to give you a lighter sentence. Next time you get caught...you need to be addicted to gambling!!!
It's so much better when a judge throws the book at all conservatives and lets liberals off with a slap on the wrist.
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