Prepare For Your Federal Sentencing Hearing:
If you truly want to prepare for your federal sentencing this blog will help you. I say “truly” because our experience (our team, including Shon Hopwood and Michael Santos, have more than 50 years combined experience) tells us some white-collar defendants simply talk about preparing–not all follow through.
Unfortunately, no magic button exists. If you are in the rare minority of white collar defendants looking for results without massive amounts of action and effort, our work is not for you.
For those that want to work, our seven quick tips will help you. So, let’s get started!!
Unfortunately, when federal prosecutors bring charges, more than 80 percent of all defendants face a sentencing hearing. We believe you can help influence your federal sentencing with a well-thought-out sentence-mitigation strategy. Although every case is different and requires a highly customized approach, we can provide some bullet point suggestions.
Here are seven quick tips to prepare for your federal sentencing:
- Think about the perspective of all stakeholders. Their perception is much more important than your perception.
- Think about the victims of the crime. If you don’t think your crime has a victim, then you’re not thinking about the stakeholder’s perceptions. From the stakeholders’ perception, the crime has victims. Who are they? How have they suffered?
- Prepare to reveal what you’ve learned from the process. In what ways have you grown as a result of this experience?
- Execute a plan that will differentiate you from other defendants. Think about the judge’s perception. Think about perceptions of others you will encounter in the future—including prison personnel, probation officers, and future employers or business partners.
- Influence the process by showing what steps you’ve taken to make things right.
- Help the judge understand how you will adjust your life in light of this experience.
- Convince the judge that you’ll never appear in Court as a criminal defendant again.
If you are a defendant who agrees with our tips the next step is probably to take action.
Until we connect again, work, work, work to show why you are worthy of leniency at your federal sentencing.
Best,
Justin Paperny
P.S. Our mastering prison program remains full, but you can get on our waiting list here.
I have downloaded the free version of this in hopes of helping my son. He was an assistant coach, just finished his bachelors, in his first semester of his masters, during a very emotional time for our family,(very tight nit) when a player on his team attempted suicide and being raised as a Christian tried to help her and fell in love. He was 23, she was 15. He had never even had a traffic ticket. We knew nothing about the way the system worked so he tried to do the right thing. The right thing was twisted, turned political, media distortion and the city turned into a federal case. He was entrapped, threatened, bullied and stolen from by the FBI. It has been devastating to my son and the family. He felt if he didn’t accept this unbelievable plea bargain they would punish him if he exercised his right to trial. He is awaiting sentencing which has a minimum of 15 years.