Monday, May 3, 2010

Proposed Modifications to the Sentencing Guidelines -- More Latitude

New more lenient Sentencing Guidelines, effective 11/1/2010. The new / proposed guidelines permit a judge more leeway to consider factors not previously considered considered in the mainstream: criminal defendants’ military service, age, and mental and emotional conditions. Congress could still modify or even rejcect the proposals, but I don't think that is likely.

I think most of the phenomena that led to the change are not prominent in federal tax cases, but there is still some room for skillful and creative lawyering the sentencing phase in these cases.

Some links to further explore the proposals:

Sentencing Commission Proposals

Wall Street Journal Article

Wall Street Journal Law Blog

Sentencing Law Blog

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