• Do you know exactly what you should (and should not say) in your personal letter / narrative to your sentencing Judge?
• What does your prosecutor think of you as a human being?
• Does your personal narrative address the four sentencing elements Judges tell us they want to hear?
• What are you doing to show the judge you’re more than your crime and worthy of mercy?
• Do you know how to identify with your victims?

Our team helps people prepare for the probation interview and sentencing. We can help you. Since 2008, we’ve worked to restore confidence for more than 1,000 people before they prepared for sentencing. All of our training is premised on what we’ve learned by interacting with sentencing judges, prosecutors, probation officers, and defense attorneys practicing in federal, state, and municipal proceedings.

My name is Justin Paperny. You and I have never met. But there is an understanding we share. We both understand the stress and pain that follows getting charged with a crime. 

I cannot promise our sentencing course will take all of your stress and pain away. 

What I can promise, however, is that with proper implementation and work (yes, this requires real work or you are on the wrong website) you can embark on a path that will help you get your desired goal. 

What is your goal and what do you want? The best possible experience through the criminal justice system. That experience will be better if you have a shorter prison term: That is why you are here and that is how we can help you. 

When defendants try to write their own personal story or narrative without proper training, they usually run into one of the following problems:

THEY INADVERTENTLY EXCUSE THEIR CONDUCT

In our experience, too many defendants inadvertently excuse, blame or rationalize away their conduct in their narrative. They don’t know that doing so can actually make things worse. You are better off turning in nothing to the Judge than a narrative that offers an excuse. 

THEY LACK THE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE

In one of my books, Lessons from Prison, I described my experience: 

“When I was a defendant, I simply had no idea what to say. I said something along the lines of: ‘I’m sorry for my actions. I accept responsibility.’ In the end, I gave Judge Wilson two pages of boilerplate language that my expensive lawyers wrote. In retrospect, I could have done better. Nothing in that letter we submitted influenced the sentence my judge inflicted.”

Succeeding through sentencing and beyond requires an honest assessment of our capabilities. Writing the proper narrative isn’t something you can just “knock out” in one sitting. The process involves tons of trial and error. Our experience of learning from both judges and other stakeholders can help you craft a letter that will leave an impact with your sentencing Judge.

THEY HATE WRITING

We work with many people that do not like to write. They struggle to create a compelling, first-person narrative. 

THEY DON’T HAVE TIME

As a defendant, your time is probably stretched thin enough. Do you really have 50-100 hours to devote to this personal narrative? Probably not. Worse still, even if you devote the time, you have no assurance your message is on track. 

THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND THE MOTIVES OF THE STAKEHOLDERS—WHO ARE THEY?

Prosecutors: They score victories with convictions and long sentences. Expect prosecutors to highlight the criminal charge and the negative characteristics that lead to criminal behavior. Expect prosecutors to say that a defendant is only saying he is sorry because he got caught.

Probation Officer: Probation officers will prepare the presentence investigation report (PSR), and it will parrot the prosecutor’s version of events. Unless a person adheres to the 4 steps we teach in our Sentencing Prep course (pay particularly close attention to step 2), the person should expect a PSR that favors the prosecution’s argument for a severe sentence.

Sentencing Judge: Most sentencing judges previously served as prosecutors. Their experience may influence their perceptions of defendants. Our Sentencing Prep course teaches participants how to differentiate themselves from other defendants that have been convicted.

Defense Attorney: Defense attorneys are great analytical thinkers. They focus on the law, the evidence, and disproving the prosecutor’s case. That does not always make them great listeners, and they may or may not take time to truly learn why a person is worthy of mercy at sentencing. 

Prison Administrators: Staff members will classify people that have been sanctioned to serve time. They will rely upon the PSR and the Judgment order, without knowing any specifics about the individual. If a person wants to influence those decisions, they should work carefully to craft their personal narrative. 

Who are We and Why Can We Help You?

As I wrote earlier, my name is Justin Paperny and I was once in your shoes. Bad choices I made in the investigative stage led to a longer prison term. It also led to more pain for those that supported me.

Michael Santos and I have been working together since we met in prison in 2008. Together we created a plan that would help more people emerge successfully from prison. That plan starts with preparing properly for sentencing. 

Over the last 11 years we’ve restored confidence for thousands of people exposed to a sentencing proceeding. By giving them a plan, they could work more effectively to position themselves for leniency. Based on what judges and probation officers have told our clients, we know that our team has helped many people get shorter sentences.

Our work has also given us the opportunity to work with sentencing Judges. They’ve told us what they would like to see—before sentencing—from a person convicted of a crime.

For those too busy to watch the video, we provide a summary: 

The video clip above shows our interview with Judge Stephen Bough, a federal judge from the District of Missouri. We asked Judge Bough whether he preferred to hear about remorse from a defense attorney or from a defendant. Judge Bough said that he wanted the defendant to advocate on his own behalf.  

Specifically, we asked Judge Bough: 

“What type of weight do you put on a defense attorney’s statement about remorse?”   

Judge Bough said that, at most, he listened to about 1 or 2 percent of what a defense attorney said when it came to descriptions of the defendant’s remorse. Judge Bough went on to say that all judges know lawyers are paid advocates. If a defendant wants mercy, he said, the defendant had better show that he has introspected. By helping the judge understand that he has given serious thought to his actions and the consequences that followed, the judge may be more inclined to believe that mercy is warranted. 

Introducing Sentencing Narrative Prep Course

Our Narrative Prep Course is a one-of-a-kind course that helps you create your personal narrative in just a few hours, even if:

• you’re not a writer
• you’re still struggling to come to terms with your case
• you’re scared to open up about your conduct

If You Can Type and Edit, You Can Create a Compelling Personal Narrative That Will Influence Your Outcome

Our Sentencing Narrative Prep Course provides you immediate access to six time tested narratives we wrote on behalf of six personal consulting clients. 

Regardless of your crime, these templates (along with our video instruction) will help you understand exactly how to create and craft your own narrative. If you can type and edit, you can produce a compelling narrative that will influence the stakeholders I described above.

Clients have paid us more than $10,000 for these personal narratives you will have immeadiate access to. We’ve created this course for people that cannot afford to pay for that one-on-one attention. We get it. Being charged with a crime brings enormous costs, both in terms of financial costs and costs associated with loss of liberty. We want to help!

We have invested more than 1,000 hours to gather the information we’re presenting in this digital training program. And we offer the digital training program (with bonuses included) for a one-time payment of $997 (less than $1 per hour for all of our work to make this information available to you).

If you prefer two payments, click the order button that offers two payments of $597 each. (These resources help us pay for marketing that allows us to reach and help more people, and helps us to continue producing content to help people facing the most challenging times of their life.)

For a single payment of $997, or two payments of $597, you’ll have immediate access to our narratives that teach you what judges want to hear from a defendant In a narrative. Specifically, our narrative templates will help you: 

• Express empathy with the victim of the crime,
• Present a story to show influences that led to the crime,
• Articulate remorse in a way that a judge would appreciate,
• Describe what you have learned from the experience,
• Show what you have done to reconcile with society,
• Build a persuasive case that you are going to live the remainder of your life as a law-abiding citizen,
• Elicit a more merciful sentence.

Dr. Phil Asks Justin About Four Steps to Prepare for Sentencing

Listen as Justin responds to Dr. Phil’s question on preparing for the PSR and sentencing.

With training from our course, you’ll learn how to craft a letter in your own words. An effective letter will show:

1. how you identify with victims
2. your remorse
3. your plans moving forward, including lessons learned
4. a convincing message that helps your judge understand why you will never return to another courtroom 

Our Sentencing  Prep course covers the four elements that we describe above. We offer several sample narratives and video tutorials that will show you how to self-advocate. With our comprehensive training, you’ll be in a better position to influence leniency at sentencing. 

This Course Is Not For Everyone

No, this is not some takeaway sale tactic. To get the maximum benefit from this course, a person has to put in the work. They must be willing to read the training, get the theory behind our thoughts, review the templates and samples, and start writing. 

Let me explain…

By now you’ve watched clips from the videos our team has done with Judge Bough and Judge Bennett. We’ve interviewed many more sentencing judges, but those two clips provide the gist of what we’ve learned. Clearly, judges give a lot of weight in their deliberations when they see defendants that take the time to advocate on their own. 

Despite evidence from judges and hundreds of successful case studies, some lawyers are adamantly opposed to defendants writing a compelling first-person narrative.

Further, despite evidence and value of turning in the narrative at the pre-sentence interview, many lawyers will not allow it. 

Recently, a client’s lawyer would not allow him to turn in his personal narrative at the interview. 

To try to solve the problem, I said the following:

“Mr. (insert lawyer’s name), I am confused. You agreed that we are trying to use our narrative to influence the Judge at sentencing. If we are trying to use this narrative to influence the Judge, why would we not use the same narrative to influence the probation officer that will make a recommendation in the probation report on how long our client should serve in prison? 

Further, Judge Mark Bennett said in an open video that he would be impressed if he knew a defendant showed up to their probation interview with their narrative–it would show how seriously the defendant took the interview. 

Help me understand why you are against this. 

As things stood, the probation officer would only have the plea agreement. And the plea agreement presented the government’s version of events. It made our client look like Bernie Madoff or Allan Stanford. On top of that, prison officials would rely upon that PSR as they made decisions influencing our clients adjustment. It made all the sense in the world to present the personal narrative, just to influence the journey in prison. 

“Justin”, the lawyer told me, “despite your compelling reasons, I’ve been a lawyer for 24 years. I’ve never turned in a letter at the probation interview and I’m not starting now.”

What would you do? Our client used his discretion, and it made a difference. When he got the presentence investigation report, it included entire excerpts from the personal narrative–which would influence his journey in prison.

If you have a lawyer that wants minimal input from a defendant, or if that lawyer has a “God Complex,” believing that they are all-knowing and that a defendant should not contribute to the strategy, this program may not be right for you. 

To Summarize With Our Sentencing Narrative Prep Course You Get:

1. Many proven templates you can easily modify and edit to your own unique situation,
2. Private videos from Michael Santos and me to help you understand each narrative and why we wrote what we wrote. You simply need to watch, listen and learn,
3. Templates you can copy, paste and send to your lawyer that explains the reasoning behind your narrative and how you would like to share it with stakeholders (as you would expect we reference the comments from the Judges we interview to explain why you wrote the letter).

Try our Sentencing Narrative Prep course today.

We know you will not regret your purchase.

Best,

Justin Paperny