Houston Criminal Attorney: Federal Sentencing Guidelines

The importance of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines cannot be over-emphasized. With more than 90% of Federal criminal cases being resolved either through a plea bargain or a conviction after trial, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines come into play in the vast majority of Federal criminal cases.

When I first started practicing law in 1978, there were no Federal Sentencing Guidelines. A Judge was free to sentence an offender to anything from probation to the maximum punishment provided by law. It was entirely within the discretion of the sentencing Judge. Therefore, the sentence an offender received oftentimes depended on whether the Judge his/her case was assigned to was a “hanging Judge” or a “pushover”.
It could also depend on where the crime occurred. For example; in Kansas a kilo of cocaine was considered an enormous case, often resulting in an enormous sentence. In Miami, a kilo of cocaine was a small case, oftentimes resulting in a lenient sentence. A sentence could also be impacted by whether the offender was white or black, rich or poor.

A lot of people, including Congress, thought this system was unfair. All of this changed with the passage of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines that became effective for all sentences after November 1, 1987.

The Guideline system is an effort to eliminate disparity in sentencing and an attempt to ensure that offenders who commit similar crimes get similar sentences. This is achieved by assigning mathematical scores to various criminal offenses and to the defendant's criminal history, then coming up with a Guideline range of an appropriate sentence.
In theory, this sounds easy. In practice, it is enormously complex because there are many disputed factors that go into calculating the Guideline range. On top of these factors an additional wrinkle is added, because based upon a major United States Supreme Court decision the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are now “advisory” rather than “mandatory”. This means a Court is not actually bound to sentence within the Guideline range, and may depart upward or downward from that range.
However, in most cases Judges still give a Guideline range sentence in an effort to ensure uniformity of sentences.

It is extremely important in a Federal criminal case that your lawyer has a thorough understanding of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, because they drive the sentence in a Federal criminal case. There are often a number of ways an attorney can lower the Guideline range by successfully contesting certain “enhancements”, or boosts, to the Guideline score. There may also be ways in which an attorney can obtain a downward departure or a downward variance from the Guideline range sentence.


I have been working with the Federal Sentencing Guidelines since their implementation on November 1, 1987, and have often been able to secure favorable sentencing results for my clients. For more information please visit Kunianskylaw.com or contact our Houston, Texas offices at (713) 622-8333 for a free consultation.