I spoke with an executive this week who had done everything people tell you to do before sentencing. Pressed suit. Letters from his wife and kids. A statement he had rehearsed so many times he could say it in his sleep.
He stood up in federal court and told the judge he was sorry for everything that happened.
That phrase cost him 18 months.
“Everything that happened” sounds like weather. Things happened. Nobody did them. A judge who has read your indictment, your plea agreement, victim impact statements, and your lawyer’s sentencing memo does not need a weather report. He needs to know that you get it, specifically, and that you got it before you walked through that door.
What federal judges actually want to hear at sentencing
I was a defendant once. I did the same thing this executive did. I relied on my lawyer, stacked up letters, and hoped Judge Wilson would see me differently than the government’s version of me.
He didn’t. I missed the mark and got a longer sentence because of it.
Here is what I should have said, and what I told this executive he should have said: I lied. I stole money to fund a lifestyle I could not afford because I did not want my family to see me failing. I had a good degree and a background that should have been enough, and instead of working harder I cheated. I stole from a company that had to lay people off because of what I did. Their hiring policies changed. Their reputation took a hit. That is my fault. If I were them, I would want real consequences too. I read their victim impact statement. I knew better.
That is specific. That is ownable. That is what a judge weighs when deciding whether someone gets it or is performing getting it.
Why Richard Sherman walked out with supervision instead of 13 months in prison
Yesterday, Richard Sherman left his sentencing hearing and went straight back to his hotel room to join our weekly webinar. He was sentenced to two years of supervision instead of 13 months in federal prison.
His sentencing statement was short. A few minutes. He did not need to say much because he had a three-and-a-half-year documented record that the judge had already studied. Therapy. Restitution payments set aside before anyone ordered them. Volunteer work. Consistent, verifiable conduct that started long before his sentencing date was scheduled.
The judge had already made up most of his mind before Sherman opened his mouth.
That is the point most defendants miss. Sentencing is not the moment to make your case. The case gets made in the 18 to 36 months before you walk into that courtroom.
What happens when you wait until sentencing week
The executive I spoke with this week had been on our webinars. He had heard this exact framework. He knew about the Straight-A Guide, the framework my partner Michael Santos developed that is now inside every Bureau of Prisons facility. He knew about incremental daily action, accountability, building a record.
He did none of it.
He spent months telling himself his lawyer was a former U.S. attorney and his letters were strong and the judge would see him differently. Then the judge started speaking and it hit him: he had wasted 18 months of preparation time.
He is now blaming the judge. Blaming the lawyer. I told him directly: you knew what to do. You had heard it. You chose not to do it.
What to do before your next court date
Pick one thing you can do today or this week that a judge could verify without guessing. Not a plan to do something. The thing itself.
Set aside $500 toward restitution. Show up to an AA meeting and get the slip signed. Start the volunteer hours. Begin therapy with a licensed counselor and keep the appointment receipts. Take the part-time job. Drive for Uber. Start the business.
Then tell your lawyer what you did and ask where you can do more.
The defendants who come out of this with shorter sentences are not the ones with the best lawyers or the most polished statements. They are the ones who spent the 18 months before sentencing building something a judge could read, verify, and trust.
A statement rehearsed in a mirror is not that. A three-year record of consistent conduct is.
Justin Paperny
If you want to talk through where you are and what you can still build before your date, schedule a call with our team.
FAQs
How far in advance should I start preparing for federal sentencing?
As early as possible. Richard Sherman started three and a half years before his hearing. The executive in this piece had 18 months and used none of them. There is no minimum, but the longer your documented record of verifiable conduct, the more a judge has to work with. If your sentencing date is two months away, start today. You cannot get the time back, but you can stop wasting what is left.
Is a rehearsed allocution statement enough to get a lighter sentence?
No. A rehearsed statement without a record behind it can actually hurt you. Judges hear hundreds of apologies a year. What separates the ones they believe from the ones they dismiss is whether the defendant’s behavior before the hearing matches the words coming out of his mouth. The statement matters, but only when it summarizes actions already taken, not promises still being made.
What counts as verifiable conduct a judge can review before sentencing?
Anything with a paper trail. Restitution payments, even partial ones, made before the court ordered them. Therapy attendance receipts. Volunteer hour logs. Employment records. Letters from counselors, employers, or program coordinators who can speak to specific behavior they observed. The key is that someone other than you or your attorney can confirm it happened. Talk to your defense attorney about what documentation to compile and how to present it.
My lawyer says he will handle everything at sentencing. Should I still prepare on my own?
Yes. Your lawyer handles the legal argument. The 3553(a) factors, the guideline calculations, the objections to the PSR. That is their job and they should do it well. But the personal conduct record, the specific self-accounting, the restitution gesture, the allocution statement itself; those have to come from you. No attorney can manufacture 18 months of verifiable behavior in a five-minute speech. The members we work with who get the best outcomes are the ones whose lawyers had something real to point to because the defendant built it.
