So - we have seen that the Guidelines are precise (or at least precise for the practice of law). An attorney can tell a client the time that he is facing. In addition, the guidelines also offer the advantage in that the specific offense and the criminal history can be easily identified (which is not often the case with State criminal court, especially Texas State criminal courts).
But, as also explained, their are exceptions to the guidelines. And, before we conclude our discussion on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, there is one more issue we need to discuss.
In 2005, the United States Supreme Court decided the extremely important case of United States of America v. Booker. The decision was that the guidelines are just that - guidelines, and are not mandatory. This means that a judge (Federal judge of course) can depart from the guidelines.
Here is Wikipedia's overview of the case:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Booker
This means that although an attorney can tell his client what he is facing, the previous level of certainty (before 2005) no longer exists.
Once again, the sentencing in the Federal system is very exact compared with most State systems (readers will note in an earlier post where the penalties for a second degree felony in Texas ranged from 2-20 years).
NOTE: THE INFORMATION IN THIS BLOG IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE NOR
IS IT INTENDED TO BE LEGAL ADVICE. IF
THE READER HAS ANY LEGAL QUESTIONS, PLEASE REFER TO AN ATTORNEY.
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tausk
