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April 28, 2010
State Must Prove Defendant's Knowledge of Driver's License Suspension
April 13, 2010
Sentencing Commission Votes to Eliminate Recent Criminal History Points
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Consent to search inside of vehicle does not extend to locked containers
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Making phone calls to get drugs for personal use not a felony
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Sentencing Commission Votes to Eliminate Recent Criminal History Points
April 13, 2010
Topic: Criminal
Today, the United States Sentencing Commission has voted to delete section 4A1.1(e) from the Guidelines.
That section was part of the Criminal History Category in the sentencing guidelines said to:
"Add 2 points if the defendant committed the instant offense less than 2 years after release from imprisonment on a sentence counted under (a) or
(b) [which are 3 points for a felony sentence and 2 points for a 60-day+ sentence] or while in imprisonment or escape status on such offense. If 2 points are added for item (d) [which is 2 points for committing offense while on probation, S/R, imprisoned, etc.], add only 1 point for this item."
On Tuesday, April 13, 2010, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to amend the Guidelines Manual by deleting §4A1.1(e) (recency points). In a press release, the Federal Public Defender's office stated that "The presumed reason for the amendment is that recency points add nothing to the predictive quality of the criminal history score and fail to reflect meaningful differences in offender culpability." See pp. 90-98 of the Defenders' testimony to the Commission, available at http://www.fd.org/pdf_lib/FPD_Testimony%20of%20Meyers%20and%20Mariano_FINAL.pdf
This will be sent to Congress on May 1, 2010 and, if no further action is taken, will be adopted on Nov. 1, 2010. In the meantime, it is clear that courts would be allowed to make this change immediately. The court can use its inherent authority in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and Supreme Court precedent to disagree with any part of the guidelines on policy grounds. Defense counsel should argue that courts should not assess recency points now for the same reason that the Commission recommends abandoning them on Nov. 1st:
they do not reflect either increased culpability or an increased risk of recidivism and thus do not serve any sentencing purpose.
The Commission will be announcing all of the pending amendments on its website soon, http://www.ussc.gov/.
If you are looking for criminal defense in federal court in Jacksonville, Orlando, or Tampa, contact us to discuss your case. Learn more about Arnold & New's federal criminal defense here.
