Getting approached or arrested by the FBI can be a shocking and overwhelming experience .In my case I was approached by the FBI at my office at 530 am and told that I was being charged with Securities fraud and I was facing 9 years in prison. I was terrified and had no idea what to do. I called an attorney who I had hired in the past to handle a civil investigation and asked him to handle the matter for me. I was not prepared for this, and I had never known anyone who had been arrested or approached by the FBI so I did not have anyone who could guide me. My attorney handled the negotiation with the prosecutors and organized the plea agreement. I leaned on my attorneys for everything. I was hoping they could do something to help me avoid prison. The truth is in federal cases there is only so much your attorney can do to help you and probation or a non custodial sentence is not the norm. Sentencing is influenced in most cases by the federal sentencing guidelines which were put in place by Congress as a benchmark as to what an offender’s sentence may be. These are advisory, but most judges follow them to some extent. So is there any chance of receiving a lower sentence than what is specified in my plea agreement or what the sentencing guidelines would suggest ? In many cases a personal mitigation strategy has shown to be effective in gaining departures from an expected sentence. These mitigation plans are personal but n there are some general cornerstones that are part of any effective plan.
Personal Narrative
This is a highly detailed document that is created by our team with the help of the defendant. The document will detail the person’s childhood, education, substance abuse history, career, circumstances behind the crime , remorse and a plan going forward to detail why the defendant will never return to a courtroom again. This document alone has proved effective in sentence mitigation.
Character Reference Letters
These are letters that will be submitted to the judge and prosecutors prior to sentencing. My team has experience in drafting these types of letters that may influence a judge to make a decision to depart from your expected sentence. There is an art in writing these letters. As to the content and quantity. We spend hours interviewing, and re writing these letters to get the proper message to the
Pre Sentence Interview Preparation.
One you enter a guilty plea or are convicted at trial, you will attend a meeting with pretrial services. At this meeting the probation officer will gather information about your childhood, family, education, finances, your offense, and future plans. This is the most important interview of your life. From this interview the probation office will submit to the judge what is called the presentence investigation report. The probation officer will provide the judge with information found in the interview and what the recommendation of the probation department is in regards to your sentence. We have seen these interviews yield positive and negative recommendations. We spend a significant amount of time coaching our clients and preparing them for this interview.
Sentence Mitigation
Sentence mitigation is the work you do post arrest or indictment. This is one of the ays the court has an opportunity to see who you are apart from your offense. This can be done in the form of community service, volunteer work or recovery work if applicable. One of the ways to show the court you are trying to recreate your life is to work. Recreating your life in a new field, gaining a certification or license. Going back to school to learn a skill. In addition to the work you do to better yourself the court is going to want to see what you have done to identify with your victims. Have you shown remorse? What plans do you have in place to make restitution ?These are all ways of showing the court you are building a new life and by doing this you will not appear before them again. A criminal defense attorney once told me you will be giving the judge something to hang their hat on should they decide to give you a lower sentence than what is expected.
