Sentencing Guidelines staff explain custody‑status scoring, Robinette retroactivity and waiver rules

Davance Roche and Linda McBriar, staff with the Sentencing Guidelines Commission, led a virtual lunchtime training focused on policy 2B2 — the rules for applying custody status when calculating criminal‑history scores. McBriar told attendees the session’s materials and archived manuals are available at mn.gov/sentencing-guidelines and offered a CLE credit code for participants.

McBriar said the commission’s 2019 changes to criminal‑history decay periods and custody‑status types were intended to take effect prospectively on Aug. 1, 2019, but that an appeal changed how those changes apply in practice. "Long story short, the Supreme Court agreed with him," she said, describing the Robinette appeal and its effect: defendants who were pending sentencing on 08/01/2019 can take advantage of the lowered criminal‑history scoring even if the offense date precedes the policy change. Staff emphasized that previously sentenced cases would require…