Legal Question in Appeals and Writs in Massachusetts

My Fiance was charged last year with reciept of stolen property, accessory and conspiracy and was sentenced to 2 1/2 years. He had been indited with 4 other plaintiffs all of whom had much more serious charges and were part of a "crime ring" My Fiance got caught up with this due to helping a friend who ended up stealing a significant amount of money from a company he worked work for and used an account my fiance had opened for him to help him while he was going through a divorce and his friend ended up laundering a significant amount of money through this account. The friend and several of the other plaintiffs had money and were able to afford good lawyers, they were just sentenced this past week, 2 of them were sentenced to 2 years, and my fiances friend got 2 years as well. My fiance had much less charges but we could not afford a better lawyer and he pled guilty back in june 2012 thinking that he did not want to go to trial with the other defendents because they had worse charges and he didn't want to be associated with those. Now it seems he was unfairly sentenced and got more time them the guys who had worse charges. Is it possible for him to appeal his sentence and get out earlier with time served? He will have served a year on June 19th.


Asked on 5/10/13, 11:27 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

An appeal will not address a sentence unless it exceeds the allowed range or rises to the level of cruel and unusual under the circumstances.

Generally, a petition to revise and revoke a sentence may be filed and brought for hearing, but you should consult with an attorney regarding the specifics of the petition and filing deadlines.

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Answered on 5/10/13, 3:12 pm


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