In our last couple posts, we’ve been exploring the topic of downward departures in the context of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. We’ve already discussed the basic approach used by the guidelines in determining a defendant’s sentencing range for...
Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer
Month: January 2015
Federal sentencing guidelines and downward departures, P.2
In our previous post, we began looking at the issue of departures from federal sentencing guidelines. Departures, as we noted, can be either downward or upward depending on the circumstances. Downward departures, to be sure, present an opportunity for advocacy in...
Federal sentencing guidelines and downward departures, P.1
Sentencing is an important aspect of federal criminal cases. Although Federal Sentencing Guidelines provide a sentencing range deemed appropriate to the offender’s convictions, judges do have the discretion to depart from the sentencing range. Sometimes judges...
How can an attorney help me with criminal charges?
When an individual faces criminal charges, the normal reaction would be one of anxiousness, fear, confusion, and perhaps anger. Not only is there the surprise and embarrassment of the charges, there is the lack of understanding, for most, as to how the legal system...
Supreme Court: officer’s reasonable mistake of law doesn’t destroy probable cause, P.2
In our previous post, we began speaking about a recent United States Supreme Court decision which determined that an officer’s reasonable misunderstanding of the law does not destroy probable cause. In the case which gave rise to that decision, the issue came up...