Sentencing Guidelines Commission workshops draft legislative changes, takes no formal votes

MINNEAPOLIS — The Sentencing Guidelines Commission met in a special workshop on Nov. 20 to review draft legislative recommendations the panel plans to include in its January report to the Legislature, but commissioners did not take formal action on the proposals.

Chair Mitchell opened the meeting and said the session was intended as an informal opportunity to "workshop" ideas and give staff direction, not to adopt final language. Commissioner Middlebrook moved to approve the agenda; Commissioner Keith seconded the motion, and Director Reitz announced the agenda passed by an 8-0 roll-call vote.

Director Reitz, the commission's staff director, led a page-by-page review of the draft package. He said recommendation 1 would require submission of sentencing worksheets to the commission to complete its dataset and noted that, while Minnesota law excludes the Guidelines from mandatory-life cases, the commission has tracked life sentences since 2005. Reitz pointed out one apparent omission in the staff's prior lists: "first-degree murder of an unborn child" carries a mandatory life sentence…