Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

Re: information on vilating parole

Your question is kinda disjointed, so I will rephrase it.

You want to know if a judge can use a conviction from 15 years ago to increase a sentence for a more recent crime unconnected to the first.

The answer is emphatically yes. The purpose of the first sentence was to help educate you not to re-offend. When you fail to learn the lesson, the court can use that failure to increase your sentence on a differnt crime. It is call Criminal History. In a federal case the US Sentencing guidelines the US Congress mandated judges to consider criminal history in fashioning a sentence.

The concept is that, unless pardoned or expunged, your former crimes maybe forgiven, but not ever forgotten.

If you or a friend are facing a parole violation, no matter how hopeless you think the situation, you will do better with a criminal defense attorney at your side.

If you need to find one in your area, you can look into findlaw.com or call the NYS Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The are in the phone book in Manhattan. It is a 212 number. You may also contact me at the below telephone number and I will try to help you with a referral.

Good Luck.