by Judge Sarah Hennesy
Mille Lacs County District Court
I always talk to jurors after they render their verdict in a case. In criminal cases, jurors often have questions about sentencing: Who will sentence the defendant? What kind of sentence will he or she get?
While there are a few states that allow for jury sentencing, in Minnesota, as in most states, the judge will decide the defendant’s sentence and not the jury. News reports on sentencings do not often address the framework within which judges decide what sentence to give in each case. Judges do not have unlimited discretion in deciding an appropriate sentence for a particular crime and offender. A judge’s decision is both limited and guided by legislation and the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines.
First, Minnesota has criminal laws that dictate the maximum possible penalties for different criminal offenses. Misdemeanors, which include offenses such as first-time drinking and driving, trespass and disorderly conduct, carry a maximum penalty of up to 90 days in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. Gross misdemeanors, such as second-offense drinking and driving or interference with a 911 call, are punishable by up to one year in jail and up to a $3,000 fine. Felonies carry the possibility of spending more than a year incarcerated, which means the sentence would likely be spent in prison and not a local jail. Different felonies carry different statutory maximum penalties, and the judge must sentence within that statutory maximum.
Second, the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines provide judges with “presumptive sentences” – sentences that are considered appropriate for each crime. The purpose of these guidelines is to promote equity in sentencing and to help ensure sentencing is conducted without regard to race, gender or socioeconomic status. The guidelines provide the judge with a sentence that is presumed to be appropriate for similarly severe cases in which the offender shares a similar criminal history. Under the guidelines, a judge must first determine what number is assigned by the guidelines to represent the severity level of the particular offense. For example, a first-degree aggravated robbery has a severity level of 8. Next, the judge must determine the offender’s criminal-history score based on the offender’s prior convictions. An offender without any criminal history has a criminal-history score of 0. The judge then uses a Sentencing Guidelines Grid (which can be found on the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines website, if you are interested) to find the presumptive sentence that corresponds to a severity level 8 offense with a 0 criminal history score. The presumptive sentence? Forty-eight months in prison, with a presumptive sentencing range of between 41 and 57 months. A judge may only diverge from the presumptive sentencing range when there are “substantial and compelling circumstances” to do so. Consequently, in most sentencings, the judge is only making a decision as to where within the Guideline range the sentence should fall.
The statutory maximum penalties mandated by statute and the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines help to ensure the sentences judges give for particular crimes have some statewide consistency and help to prevent disparities in sentencings for similar crimes. If you are interested in reading more about the maximum penalties that apply in criminal cases, check out Minnesota’s Criminal Code found in Chapter 609 of Minnesota Statutes.
