DC Embezzlement Sentencing Guidelines

DC embezzlement sentencing guidelines were established for the purpose of creating a level of consistency between cases. These guidelines aim to create ranges of penalties based on the severity of a crime and a defendant’s prior criminal history. While judges have discretion to go outside of sentencing guidelines using a certain number of preset criteria, they have wide discretion to sentence a person within the guidelines.

If you need strong representation for your trial or sentencing hearing, contact a skilled theft attorney today. An attorney could assert your rights and protect your interests at every step of the case.

Guidelines May Promote Fairness in Sentencing

Sentencing guidelines for DC embezzlement allegations could prevent people in similar situations from getting widely divergent sentences based on their individual judge or factors outside of the control of the defendant. Having sentencing guidelines means that judges know which penalties are appropriate for each defendant’s circumstances. Judges also could take into account their personal circumstances and their need as an individual to allow for jail time to be suspended or reduced, or for a person to be placed on probation to receive drug treatment or mental health treatment.

While mandatory minimums are very controversial, the purpose of mandatory minimums was to take away discretion from judges and impose a minimum sentence that a judge is required by law to impose, no matter what a person’s individual circumstances may be. While a defense lawyer cannot argue with a judge to go below any mandatory minimums that a defendant is eligible for treatment under, there are arguments that defense lawyers could make with prosecutors to argue for reduced charges down below a level that would require the minimums.

A second offense felony theft charge carries a mandatory minimum of one year in prison. If a defense lawyer is able to negotiate with the prosecutor to have a second offense of felony theft treated as a first offense, it may potentially minimize prison possibilities and no longer make the defendant eligible for mandatory amounts of prison time. Prosecutors have that leeway and defense attorneys, through aggressive advocacy, investigation, and negotiations, could potentially change a person’s situation from a mandatory minimum prison sentence down to something more favorable.

Sentencing Zones

The voluntary DC sentencing guidelines take the form of a chart. On the vertical axis of the chart are different groupings of offenses. They go from group nine, which is the least severe level of felony offense in DC, up to group one, which is the most severe grouping of felony offenses. Felony theft offenses are found in group eight of the DC sentencing guidelines for embezzlement. They are on the lower end of the severity of felony offenses under the DC sentencing guidelines. On the horizontal axis of the sentencing guidelines chart is a criminal history score.

A Defendant’s Criminal History May Affect Penalties

A person’s criminal history carries with it a specific point amount. Most prior criminal convictions on a person’s record carry with them a certain criminal history point score, and a person’s criminal history score is calculated using a number of rules and guidelines laid out by the sentencing guidelines. The higher the individual’s criminal history score is, the higher the sentencing guidelines’ range is.

If a person is facing sentencing on a felony theft charge and has no prior criminal history, then the recommended sentencing range for that person would be between 6 months and 24 months.

Under the sentencing guidelines, a judge would have the discretion of suspending the entirety of any sentence imposed. That means that a judge could impose a sentence of 12 months’ incarceration but suspend the entirety of that so that a person does not actually have to serve that 12 months in prison. If the judge deems it appropriate, they could place the individual on probation without making them serve the 12 months in prison.

If a person had a more lengthy criminal history, which could include a criminal history score of four points, then the sentencing guideline range for a felony theft is between 18 and 36 months in prison. It is recommended by the sentencing guidelines that a person serve the entirety of that sentence in prison without suspending any portion or placing the person on probation. Between the zero criminal history score and the higher criminal history score, there are mid-range sentencing recommendations in which the sentencing guidelines suggest that a person should serve some amount of jail time and not necessarily the entire amount recommended.

Contact a DC Embezzlement Attorney Today

The sentencing guidelines may be extremely complicated since they take a lot of factors into account in determining a person’s criminal history, the grouping of offense levels, and what may be considered for mitigation, aggravation, and departing from sentencing guidelines. It could be essential to have a defense lawyer who is very familiar with the DC embezzlement sentencing guidelines who knows how to use them to their advantage. This could make the difference between a person going to prison and walking free.