A short time ago I received a call from a defendant who had read about my services and asked about how he would go about engaging my company. This gentleman seemed to have his mind made up that he wanted to do as much as possible to influence the outcome of his case. During the call, we discussed mitigation strategies and other services we thought could be helpful and he seemed anxious to get started. The next day I emailed him a proposal and a detailed plan of how we felt we could help him position himself to be considered for a lower sentence. I received an email back saying “I will pass this on to my attorney and if I am interested I will get back to you.” The response was different from what he conveyed to me on the call. During the next few weeks, I stayed in touch by email with still no response. The case interested me. The guidelines were very low, the dollar loss was very small, there were no victims that would show up at sentencing and the sentencing judge was very fair and known to look at all aspects of the case. In fact, this sentencing judge had sentenced my co-defendant to a non-custodial sentence where his guidelines were 78-97 months. I am not sure my company would have changed the outcome but the man who called me several months back received a short prison sentence this past week. I am not sure he did everything possible to affect the outcome of his case. By the tone of his email it was obvious his attorney persuaded him not to move forward with a mitigation plan aside from what the attorney was providing. I am not an attorney, I did not even graduate from college. But I have an education in this area that many people don’t. I spent several years taking a hands-on approach to my case. In addition to cooperation, I worked daily to recreate my life to prove to my probation officers, the prosecutors, and my sentencing judge that I would not be returning to a courtroom again. Today I work with attorneys to assist them in helping their clients receive the best possible outcome by using my personal experience. Here are a few techniques we use to help defendants and their attorneys.
Personal Narrative
This is different from a sentencing memorandum. This is an asset that we create with the help of the defendant, his family, and other close people in his or her life. We gather information about their childhood, education, substance abuse issues if any, career path, and circumstances that may have led to their crime. In addition, we work with defendants to help them identify with their victims and convey that message in this document. We then set forth an action plan of the things the defendant will do to recreate their lives. This can be in the form of amends, restitution, a new career, community service, recovery, and many more plans of action that are personal to the defendant. We work with defendants weekly and document their progress. We provide all of this documentation to the attorney for them to use in their sentencing memorandum to argue why the defendant is worthy of a lower sentence. This document should be submitted to the probation officer during the PSI, prosecutor as well as the sentencing judge.
Character Reference Letters
In my case, I wanted to get as many people as possible to write a letter to the judge and tell my judge how good of a person I was. In the end, this almost cost me my freedom. My judge was not impressed and stated in all of these letters I have not read anything about your remorse or how you plan on making amends to your victims. There is a personal message that needs to be conveyed in these letters to the judge. We work with our clients and their letter writers to make sure the letters provide the proper message. The number of letters we submit are anywhere from 6-10. We don’t want to overwhelm the judge and we want to be respectful of their time.
Pre Sentence Interview Preparation.
This is the most important interview of the defendant’s life. I had a great attorney who came to my interview with me and advised me properly. My attorney Brian Kelly had a prior relationship with the probation officer through his work as a prosecutor and that relationship provided a great foundation for the interview. This is the time to document any substance abuse issues that may help the defendant qualify for programs that may help them gain an early release and additional halfway house time
These are a few of the services we provide to assist defendants and their attorneys in their efforts to obtain a lower sentence. I spoke this week with a friend who just completed an 80-month sentence. His message to me was he wished he had done more to participate in his case. He sees today there are things he could have done to influence the decision-makers. In my case, I worked very hard to recreate my life through cooperation and mitigation strategies. As I went to my sentencing in June of 2016 I was 100 percent confident I had done everything I could to put myself in the best possible position. When I coupled my work with the work of Brian Kelly at Nixon Peabody, I was able to receive a sentence of 1 year of home confinement down from guidelines of 78-97 months.
