Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Michigan sentencing guidelines - plea

It is impossible for an outside attorney to give you legal advice. Your son's lawyer should be very familiar with his case and is in the best position to advise him. If you don't trust that lawyer's advise, hire another lawyer.

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Re: Michigan sentencing guidelines - plea

The judge -- not the prosecutor -- determines the actual/official sentencing guidelines range. This occurs at the sentencing hearing after both sides argue any errors/corrections in the probation department's preliminary scoring.

Is the offer the prosecutor made "legal"? Yes. But inherent in the offer is that the plea can be set aside if the judge's scoring is higher. This is akin to a "Killebrew plea" (www.eatoncounty.org/prosecutor/define.htm#Killebrew).

A prosecutor would be wise to not premise a deal on the guidelines being a specific range because the judge makes that call. Many times, the prosecutor's scoring is low because there are additional prior convictions that the prosecutor does not know about, which bumps up the Prior Record Variable (PRV) score. But the final range might also be lower because some judges will not apply all the variables that we think apply (e.g., points for the D being a "leader"; points for the number of victims; points for the victim suffering psychological injury), and the judge applies lower Offense Variable (OV) points.

What my office would do in this situation is make a plea offer of "the prosecutor will recommend a sentence at the lower end of the guidelines" or ".... the middle of the guildeines". [We say "lower" rather than "low end" because saying "low end" means we are locked in to the bottom number.] This way, the deal does not hinge on the SGL range being a specific range.