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Commission splits over allowing offender‑level factors in durational departures
Summary
A steering‑committee proposal to let offender‑related characteristics justify durational departures prompted strong objections from judges and some commissioners, who warned it would conflict with decades of appellate precedent; others asked for further study or narrower reforms such as a 'true‑zero' mitigated departure.
A contentious policy question dominated the afternoon: should offender‑related characteristics (for example, stable employment, ongoing treatment, or a person’s lack of prior convictions) be explicit, permissible grounds for durational departures as well as dispositional ones?
Steering‑committee members presented draft language aimed at allowing certain mitigating characteristics to apply to both durational (length‑of‑sentence)…
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