JONATHAN BURGE

Attorney at Law

Since the 1980's, federal judges have lost most of their discretion in sentencing.  If you are convicted of a federal crime, you are sentenced according to guidelines put out by the sentencing commission.  Your crime is ranked in a number between 1 and 43.  A chart is then looked at to get a range of months you must be sentenced to by the judge, except in very limited situations. 

This was done to try to stop sentencing variances across the United States.  What is has done instead though, is to have made a federal criminal case twice as difficult.  Now, you must first fight the underlying charges.  Then you have to litigate what number you fall under in the guidelines to minimize your sentence.

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