Policy Day: Part 2

By popular request, the next one is sentencing!!! I'm not sure, but I think both my and Mr. Marston's answer were deleted in the recording from the senior center. Sigh.

Felonies are generally controlled by the sentencing guidelines. The guidelines can be found in chapter 413 of the Oregon Administrative Rules. We must follow these according to supreme court case law! (Apprendi, Blakely and others)

But we have statutes that take things out of the sentencing guidelines. ORS 137.717 is our repeat property statute. ORS 137.700 is our major crimes (measure 11) statute. There are opt outs on both. There are also issues with when sentences can go consecutive (stacking the sentence for one charge on top of the other for a longer sentence), but you must know the case law for that! If you don't have multiple victims, then I need to prove that there was a separate act or transaction under the law, or the sentence can't go consecutive.

So what do I do with all this? I know the law! I find separate acts and transactions when I can and I plead them appropriately. What's that mean? I know the language that I need to use on my paperwork to get consecutive sentences.

As a policy, what does this mean? You have to be super knowledgeable about all the administrative rules, statutes, and case law BEFORE you ever charge a case. So you can charge appropriately and get the results you want. You're still stuck with the rules, but if you know them well enough, you can maximize them to your benefit.