When the U.S. Sentencing Commission speaks or writes, criminal practitioners and federal judges listen. An independent agency of the judicial branch created by Congress in the 1980s, it is composed of seven voting members, at least three of whom are federal judges. The U.S. Attorney General, or her designee, and the Chair of the U.S. Parole Commission, also serve as nonvoting members.[1] The Sentencing Commission is the entity that issues the Guidelines Manual.
What is the Guidelines Manual?
The Guidelines Manual is a foundational document for all federal sentences – whether for economic crimes like healthcare, bank, securities and tax fraud, or for trafficking and status crimes like distribution of controlled substances, illegal re-entry, and possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. In short, the Guidelines Manual is what criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, probation officers, and sentencing judges use to calculate a defendant’s low- and high-end number of months of imprisonment or the “sentencing guidelines range.”
How is the Sentencing Guidelines Range Determined?
The Guidelines Manual computes a sentencing guidelines range using a grid containing two axes – offense level and criminal history.
- First, the Guidelines Manual assigns each federal crime a base offense level and provides a series of specific offense characteristics which can increase the base offense level.
- Then, an additional chapter provides for victim, role, and obstruction-related adjustments, resulting in a final offense level...
