Former Virginia Governor McDonnell’s sentencing guidelines: 10 years at least
Source: Washington Post
By Matt Zapotosky December 12 at 10:08 AM
The federal agency that will play a pivotal role in guiding the sentence of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell has recommended that the onetime Republican rising star spend at least 10 years and a month in prison and 12 years and 7 months at most, according to several people familiar with the matter.
The guidelines recommended by the U.S. probation office are preliminary ones, and even if finalized, U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer is not required to follow them. But experts said Spencer typically heeds the probation office’s advice, and judges in his district have imposed sentences within the recommended range more than 70 percent of the time in recent years.
“It’s of critical importance,” said white collar criminal defense attorney Scott Fredericksen. “The fact is, the vast majority of times, courts follow those recommendations closely.”
To be sure, the matter is far from settled. Calculating an appropriate range of sentences in the federal system is a complicated, mathematical process that takes into account a variety of factors, including the type of crime that was committed, the defendant’s role in that crime and the amount of the loss. A probation officer is tasked with analyzing each factor objectively, then using the federal sentencing guidelines to calculate an appropriate range of penalties.
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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/former-virginia-governor-mcdonnells-sentencing-guidelines-10-years-at-least/2014/12/12/6ba6db6e-816e-11e4-8882-03cf08410beb_story.html?
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Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Good riddance, then when you he and whoever go to jail and get out, try to vote----it's not happening in this state
can't we? 
