Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Man
Naive question to you or any other lawyers in this discussion:
If there were multiple fouls, is there an interplay on sentencing? So from a legal perspective, would a drunk driver get a more harsh sentence for the drunk driving crime if he killed someone? Or would he get the same sentence, but then he also gets an independent sentence for manslaughter? I'm going to guess that each crime is independent, but I vaguely recall hearing news blips about sentences for "X crime resulting in Y outcome".
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There are at least two different kinds of interplay here.
1. In some cases, the statutes or the sentencing guidelines created by the legislature include consideration of past crimes in sentencing. The
three strikes laws in California and some other states are good examples of this.
2. Prosecutors and judges often take the history of a defendant into account when recommending or determining the sentence for a crime. First time offenders are generally treated more leniently than habitual offenders, although if your first offense is heinous enough you can still get the maximum. Obviously, strict sentencing guidelines that tie the hands of the judge can impact the amount of discretion he actually has.
Someone who actually does this for a living might have more to add.