Sentencing Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines: An Abridged Controlled Substance Example

Publication Date: April 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

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Research Area: Justice

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Abstract:

Until recently, the federal Sentencing Guidelines determined the sentences meted out as punishment for most federal crimes. Then the Supreme Court declared that as a matter of constitutional necessity the Guidelines must be viewed as advisory rather than mandatory. The Guidelines remain a major consideration nevertheless. The Guidelines system is essentially a scorecard system. The purpose of this report is to give a bare bones description of the score-keeping process with a simple example of how it works in a drug trafficking case. This report is an abridged version -- without footnotes, appendices, or in most instances, quotation marks or citations to authority -- of CRS Report RL32846, How the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Work: Two Examples.