Downward Departures.—A downward departure from the defendant’s criminal history class may be warranted if, for example, the defendant had two minor misdemeanor convictions shut to 10 years prior to the moment offense and no different evidence of prior felony conduct within the intervening interval. A departure below the lower restrict of the relevant guideline vary for Criminal History Category I is prohibited underneath subsection , because of the fact that the lower restrict of the guideline range for Criminal History Category I is set for a primary offender with the bottom threat of recidivism.
Each Path To Career Success Is Unique We’re Right Here To Help You Discover Yours.
For example, a defendant’s criminal history consists of one theft conviction and one theft conviction. The sentences for these offenses had been imposed on the same day, eight years ago, and are handled as a single sentence beneath §4A1.2.
If the defendant received a one-year sentence of imprisonment for the robbery and a two-year sentence of imprisonment for the theft, to be served concurrently, a total of 3 factors is added under §4A1.1. Because this explicit theft met the definition of a felony crime of violence and independently would have acquired 2 criminal historical past points under §4A1.1, it could serve as a predicate beneath the profession offender guideline. Predicate Offenses.—In some instances, a number of prior sentences are handled as a single sentence for purposes of calculating the legal history score beneath §4A1.1, , and .
Hace Neighborhood Oriented Police And Probation Services Program (c O.p.p.s.)
Upward Departures from Criminal History Category VI.—In the case of an egregious, serious felony document in which even the rule of thumb vary for Criminal History Category VI isn’t sufficient to reflect the seriousness of the defendant’s criminal historical past, a departure above the guideline vary for a defendant with Criminal History Category VI may be warranted. In determining whether or not an upward departure from Criminal History Category VI is warranted, the courtroom ought to think about that the nature of the prior offenses somewhat than simply their quantity is often more indicative of the seriousness of the defendant’s criminal record.
However, for functions of determining predicate offenses, a prior sentence included within the single sentence must be treated as if it obtained criminal historical past factors, if it independently would have obtained felony history factors. Therefore, a person prior sentence could serve as a predicate under the career offender guideline (see §4B1.2) or different tips with predicate offenses, if it independently would have obtained criminal historical past factors. However, as a result of predicate offenses may be used provided that they are counted “separately” from each other (see §4B1.2), no a couple of prior sentence in a given single sentence may be used as a predicate offense. In such a case, a downward departure could also be warranted without regard to the limitation in §4A1.three.