Wednesday, February 03, 2021

New guidance for federal prosecutors. Will it matter?

 The Acting AG issued new guidance for federal prosecutors "to ensure that prosecutors are able to exercise discretion in pursuing justice."  The January 29 memo explains that the Trump era policy of charging the most serious offense and seeking the highest sentence is rescinded.  And in its place, the old Obama-era policy on charging and sentencing will take its place.  That means that prosecutors will have the discretion to look at the particular case and person, and then decide what the appropriate charge and sentence should be. This is a significant change.  Let's see if our federal prosecutors will take the letter and spirit of the change to heart.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

no

Anonymous said...

So, they won’t threaten defendants with 40-life sentences just to get a 5-Max guilty plea or cooperation?

Nah, too easy that way. People need to be reminded of the trial tax.