Sentence Minimization

A Word About "Blakely"
By now, many of you looking at this site, especially if you or a loved-one is facing serious criminal charges, may have heard the buzz about a new U.S. Supreme Court case called Blakely vs. Washington. Since this is such an important case which significantly affects the way our courts determine sentences, we thought we would give you a little more information about the case and how we are using it to help our clients.

Basically what Blakely does is require the prosecutor to prove the facts that they want the judge to use in increasing a convicted persons sentence. The prosecutor and the probation officer can no longer get away with throwing facts at the judge that have not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt; no longer can judges take those facts and use them to increase sentences.

In just the few weeks since the Blakely decision was announced we have already used it to substantially reduce sentences in some of our cases. We presently have quite a number of cases pending where we will be arguing Blakely and are optimistic about the benefits that are clients will be receiving.
This decision was long overdue and hopefully marks a turning point toward more reasonable sentencing.
Follow this link for another objective view:

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/