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| SENTENCING PREPARATION |
I want to do this video, in part, because I received a call this morning from a defendant in North Carolina, actually not far from Wake Forest University, where I've done some speaking in the past. This defendant called after watching a video I filmed last year called 10 Ways to Get More Time in Prison and in that video I talked about if you don't accept responsibility, or disclose your substance abuse, or if you continue to spend really aggressively, if you owe restitution, if you don't engage in volunteer work, if you don't work openly with your lawyer, so I identified 10 things that I think could lead to a longer term in prison.
This defendant said to me, "Look I'm not doing a lot of these things that you talk about, but here's my concern. I'm not sure that it's going to work." He had said that to me after I suggested that he engage my colleague, Michael Santos, who does a lot of the narrative writing for my clients. I said, "What do you mean that it won't work?" He said, "Well, my concern is that I cultivate my network, that I get character reference letters, that I work with you and Michael on a narrative, that I save up to pay some restitution and so on, and that it doesn't work. And that the day that the judge sentences me, none of it means anything. And all of that work is for naught."
So we have to embrace some realities. Here are some realities. You're only going to get sentenced once, so to a degree it's impossible to know exactly what could happen, because you're only going to get sentenced once. So I told this defendant and I tell all of you, it should be your goal that as you stand up before the judge, that you're able to tell yourself and your family, "There's nothing more I could have done to prepare for this moment, regardless of what the number might be," because I would never guarantee or insinuate that a specific outcome will happen by doing this work. I believe that better things will come from cultivating your network, from generating best in class character reference letters, through expressing through your own efforts why you're worthy of the best outcome. I believe volunteer work, in giving back to your community, shows that it's more than just about you and I believe and have done this long enough to know that those efforts have certainly helped a number of our clients, and frankly, people that aren't my clients who don't come across my work, some defendants really do these things.
But again, I told him, and I told all of you, you can choose to do nothing because you're convinced that it won't matter and indeed there were a number of really great guys in prison who would say, "Justin, the judges don't read your letters, the judge's mind is made up, the day of sentencing I don't think he reads the sentencing memorandums, the letters. I don't think volunteer work matters. I think it's very much a formality." There are a number of people in prison who will say that to you. This defendant this morning was alluding to that. He was looking for me to tell him something that would give him a greater level of comfort.
Sentencing Preparations
Look, I've had clients say to me that I could be maybe more aggressive in expressing the benefits of preparing, that's just not really my style. I'm very causal, I offer advice, but I don't aggressively say, "Hire me, hire me, hire me." I just don't do that. So I said to him, "You have to use your judgment. You have to decide if creating this narrative, of expressing to the judge who you are, of articulating the lessons learned, of growing your network and asking them to write letters on your behalf is in your interest. If scaling back your lifestyle a bit, so your pre-sentence report shows that, you know, you are committed to paying back some restitution, if making a restitution payment could help you. I believe making a restitution payment can help you, there's so guarantee. I've gotten [peat 04 : 09 ] calls from people who have paid back nine million in restitution, they still get eight years in prison."
Sentencing Preparations
Source :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RogddD22y9c
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