GA Criminal Sentence Laws and Policies
A sentence is a ruling stating the specific punishment for a crime conviction. The Fayette county criminal law firm of Miller & Brown, P.C. explains GA sentencing guidelines.
Does GA have sentencing guidelines?
The federal government instituted a number of criminal law reforms in the 1980’s including sentencing guidelines. Sentencing guidelines are an attempt to provide consistent punishments for crimes throughout the Federal Court System. Sentence guidelines provide the amount of prison time a defendant must serve as the punishment for a crime conviction. They provide certainty at the time of sentencing. Before these guidelines, sentencing was indeterminate, with the court imposing a maximum and minimum amount of time and a parole board deciding the amount of time the prisoner actually spent incarcerated. The guidelines are not mandatory; however, many states have adopted them. Georgia has not.
The negative aspect of sentencing guidelines is that prisoners have less of an incentive to rehabilitate themselves while incarcerated. With guidelines, prisoners can no longer impact the amount of time spent behind bars. Good behavior, self realization, and self improvement have no impact on the sentence. The positive aspect of sentencing guidelines is that they eliminate outside factors such as race or economic status from the sentencing process. Sentencing is uniform from defendant to defendant.
Criminal sentencing laws vary from state to state; GA sentencing guidelines are generally stricter than the federal guidelines. Title 17 of the Official Code of Georgia provides the criminal sentencing policy for the state, and crime sentencing is determined by the General Assembly and parole board. Parole, or early supervised release, has been eliminated or curtailed in many cases in Georgia, and the General Assembly has taken discretion away from the parole board by mandating time for some crimes.
OCGA (section) 17- 10-7 provides that upon a first conviction of a serious violent felony in GA for which a sentence of life has been imposed, the defendant is not eligible for parole until the person has served at least 30 years in prison. If a sentence less than life in prison has been imposed, the person must serve the entire sentence.
The state of GA provides for a “two strikes and you’re out!” policy, rather than the three strikes in many other states. Anyone who has been convicted of a felony must serve the maximum sentence for his crime if he is convicted of a second felony. Additionally, if someone who has been convicted of a serious violent felony is convicted of a serious violent felony again, that person is automatically sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. Someone who has been convicted of three non-violent felonies is upon the fourth felony conviction sentenced to the maximum penalty for the crime without possibility of parole.
A way to avoid the strict sentences in Georgia is to enter into a plea bargain with the prosecutor. In a plea bargain, the defendant’s criminal defense attorney and the state’s attorney come to an agreement as to the charge the defendant will admit and the sentence the defendant will serve. A plea bargain must be approved by the court and agreed to by the defendant.
This information has been provided to you by the criminal defense attorneys Miller & Brown, P.C. For a consultation, please contact us at 866-416-2403, or complete our web form.