Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Law
Comity Of Errors: When Federal Sentencing Guidelines Ignore State Law Decriminalizing Sentences, Hon. James A. Shapiro
Comity Of Errors: When Federal Sentencing Guidelines Ignore State Law Decriminalizing Sentences, Hon. James A. Shapiro
Akron Law Review
The Guidelines’ policy behind counting most diversionary dispositions as if they were criminal convictions is that “defendants who receive the benefit of a rehabilitative sentence and continue to commit crimes should not be treated with further leniency.”15 However, it is not “further leniency” to treat a state diversionary disposition in a way that state statutes say they should not be treated, thereby ratcheting up a federal defendant’s sentence. “Further leniency” would be to give a federal defendant another diversionary disposition for the federal crime. It is not principled for the Guidelines to undo the original leniency of the state diversionary …