Federal Courts Can Be Harsher than State Courts
Video Transcribed: What should you expect when it comes to federal sentencing on a federal criminal case? My name’s Ted Hasse and I am a Tulsa Federal lawyer. I handle federal criminal defense in Oklahoma. I get a lot of questions from people who are wanting to find out what they can expect once they have a federal case or if they have a loved one with a federal case, what they’re going to expect when it comes to sentencing.
Now, there is a whole process that I’ll talk about elsewhere with regard to plea agreements and a sentencing hearing, what happens with the judge. What I’ll talk about briefly here today though is a broad overview. What most people find and are surprised by is typically, federal sentencing will end up being a lot harsher than the sentences they expect to see in a state court. Now, that’s not true uniformly across every kind of different offense, but generally speaking, you’re worse off. You’re going to end up worse off and you’re going to end up with a longer period of incarceration in a federal court, and there’s a number of reasons.
The first reason is sentencing guidelines. The federal sentencing guidelines can be very harsh, and while judges are not strictly tied to those sentencing guidelines, they have to consider those sentencing guidelines and if they deviate from sentencing guidelines, they have to give good reasons for it. So the sentencing guidelines influence judges for a number of reasons to give pretty harsh sentences.
Also, sentences that would be available to judges in state cases are not available to federal judges. So federal judges that are doing sentences on federal criminal cases don’t have the option of doing a suspended or a deferred sentence. I hear defendants sometimes talk about it as a paper time where they’re getting 10 years but it’s all suspended or something in a state case perhaps. Nothing like that ever happens in federal court. That’s not a sentencing option.
There’s also not the flexibility that a judge in a state court case might have with regard to giving an extended period of probation instead of a period of incarceration. With the federal sentencing guidelines, it’s only below a certain level. Only at very low levels do they even have the option of giving probation instead of a period of incarceration. So what can be expected unfortunately for a federal defendant is they can expect that if they end up in federal court instead of a tribal court or state court, for example, because of a McGirt issue, they’re likely to face a longer period of incarceration.
If you or a loved one has questions about a federal criminal matter, or a federal criminal investigation, feel free to give me, a federal criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma, a call. I’m glad to consult with you and let you know what your options may be and what to expect going forward. I can be reached at (918) 932-2800.