Multi-count Convictions under USA Law
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Abstract
The main purpose of this article is to bring to light the peculiarities of USA sentencing law related to multi-count convictions. To achieve this purpose, it is necessary to discuss the sentencing rules defined in USA Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual. In the first part of this article the sentencing process and main elements of this process (such as Basic Offence Level, Criminal History Points, Sentencing Table, Departure and other) are briefly described.
The second and the main part of this article is related to multi-count convictions. According to the procedure for determining offense level on multiple counts as described in USA Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual, when a defendant has been convicted of more than one count, the court should: 1) group the counts resulting in conviction into distinct Groups of Closely Related Counts ("Groups"); 2) determine the offense level applicable to each Group; 3) determine the combined offense level applicable to all Groups taken together. As defined in the USA Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual all counts involving substantially the same harm should be grouped together into a single Group: 1) when counts involve the same victim and the same act or transaction; 2) when counts involve the same victim and two or more acts or transactions connected by a common criminal objective or constituting part of a common scheme or plan; 3) when one of the counts embodies conduct that is treated as a specific offense characteristic in, or other adjustment to, the guideline applicable to another of the counts; 4) when the offense level is determined largely on the basis of the total amount of harm or loss, the quantity of a substance involved, or some other measure of aggregate harm, or if the offense behavior is ongoing or continuous in nature and the offense guideline is written to cover such behavior. After grouping multiple counts into distinct Groups of Closely Related Counts, the court should determine the offense level applicable to each of the Groups. The rules of determining the offense level applicable to each of the Groups varies from the grounds of grouping the multiple counts taken into consideration. The final phase of multicount conviction is determining the combined offense level and determining the total punishment. The combined offense level is determined by taking the offense level applicable to the Group with the highest offense level and increasing that offense level by the amount of levels according to the number of group units. Finally the illustration of the operation of the multiple-count rules is given to clarify the procedure for multicount conviction.
The second and the main part of this article is related to multi-count convictions. According to the procedure for determining offense level on multiple counts as described in USA Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual, when a defendant has been convicted of more than one count, the court should: 1) group the counts resulting in conviction into distinct Groups of Closely Related Counts ("Groups"); 2) determine the offense level applicable to each Group; 3) determine the combined offense level applicable to all Groups taken together. As defined in the USA Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual all counts involving substantially the same harm should be grouped together into a single Group: 1) when counts involve the same victim and the same act or transaction; 2) when counts involve the same victim and two or more acts or transactions connected by a common criminal objective or constituting part of a common scheme or plan; 3) when one of the counts embodies conduct that is treated as a specific offense characteristic in, or other adjustment to, the guideline applicable to another of the counts; 4) when the offense level is determined largely on the basis of the total amount of harm or loss, the quantity of a substance involved, or some other measure of aggregate harm, or if the offense behavior is ongoing or continuous in nature and the offense guideline is written to cover such behavior. After grouping multiple counts into distinct Groups of Closely Related Counts, the court should determine the offense level applicable to each of the Groups. The rules of determining the offense level applicable to each of the Groups varies from the grounds of grouping the multiple counts taken into consideration. The final phase of multicount conviction is determining the combined offense level and determining the total punishment. The combined offense level is determined by taking the offense level applicable to the Group with the highest offense level and increasing that offense level by the amount of levels according to the number of group units. Finally the illustration of the operation of the multiple-count rules is given to clarify the procedure for multicount conviction.
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Authors retain copyright of their work, with first publication rights granted to the Association for Learning Technology.
Please see Copyright and Licence Agreement for further details.
