What are the federal Sentencing Guidelines?
In federal court, if a defendant is found guilty or pleads guilty, the judge assesses punishment in accordance with Sentencing Guidelines. The United States Sentencing Guidelines manual contains rules for determining the range within which a judge’s sentence must fall. Factors that go onto the determination include the offense for which the defendant was convicted; certain factors about the case such as how much money was involved in a financial crime, the role of the defendant in the overall crime and other factors concerning the defendant’s conduct; and the defendant’s criminal record. The court will sentence within the applicable guideline range (expressed in a range of months) unless the case is extremely unusual or qualifies for one of the few exceptions allowing the judge to depart from the guidelines. Guideline sentencing is a complicated aspect of federal criminal cases. It is important that a person accused of a federal offense retain an attorney that is familiar with the guid
