Sentencing Guidelines Commission debates 'true first offender' factor while advancing broader consensus package

The Sentencing Guidelines Commission on Oct. 9 reviewed a multi-part consensus package that would change how criminal history scores are calculated, alter several offense severity rankings and add a new "true first offender" departure factor — a proposal that prompted detailed debate over legal risk and judicial practice.

Commissioners heard staff present the package and timeline, discussed whether the proposed new departure factor should be allowed to support both dispositional and durational departures, and ultimately withdrew a motion to add explicit language authorizing that dual use while moving forward with consideration of the broader package.

The package presented by staff would make four broad changes to how criminal history affects presumptive sentences: shorten the decay period for prior felonies from 15 to 10 years; shorten the decay period for prior misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors from 10 to 7 years; stop counting juvenile adjudications as points in adult criminal-history scores; and change how custody status at the time of the offense affects recommended duration by converting the current custody-status rule to a durational increase rather than a factor that can move a defendant across the grid. Staff said the custody-status change is intended to increase recommended durations without moving defendants across the disposition line (so someone not presumptively subject to prison would not be driven into prison solely by custody status).

On offense severity, the package would: raise second-degree assault that causes substantial bodily harm from severity level 6 to 7; raise criminal vehicular operation causing great bodily harm to severity level 6 when gross negligence or impairment is involved;…