As we’ve discussed many times on our blog and podcast, jury sentencing sucks many butts. Thus we’re excited that effective July 1, future butts will be spared as jury sentencing goes the way of the dodo and Armie Hammer’s career. Ba Dum Tsshh. For real though, huge props to the General Assembly for taking us out of the dark ages where exercising the right to a jury trial meant worrying about a jury “recommendation” of life plus cancer if you lost. From here on out:
This is a sea change to sentencing guidelines. If judges accept that pleading guilty = accepting responsibility, the low end of the sentencing guidelines in the majority of felony cases is going to be zero. In the remaining more serious cases, the low end gets chopped in half. In the immortal words of Keanu, whoa.
What does this all mean for us schmucks schlepping it in the criminal courts everyday? Plea negotiations are usually based on sentencing guidelines, and a typical plea offer might go something like this:
Prosecutor: The guidelines are 1 year 6 months to 3 years 8 months. I’ll offer the 1 years 6 months if your client pleads guilty.
If the prosecutor has the goods to convict your client, that’s probably not a bad deal. But is it still a good offer when the adjusted low end of the sentencing guidelines will now be zero?
My takeaways are that:
P.S. On an unrelated note, W&K wishes a happy 30th birthday to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret Of The Ooze. Our sincerest thanks goes to the creative minds who brought us Vanilla Ice performing as himself in an epic ninja rap gang battle featuring a belching werewolf, breakdance karate, and turtles wailing on keytars. God bless America.