Sentencing enhancements are often applied harshly and arbitrarily. Judges can add years to defendants’
sentences if a defendant goes to trial and testifies. (i.e., the “trial tax”).
- Judges can add years to a defendant’s sentence for “acquitted” conduct, for which a jury found the defendant “innocent.” Years of additional prison time are added for “relevant” conduct that was not a part of the trial, the evidence, or the indictment. The Sixth Amendment should prohibit from adding time for “acquitted conduct” or for “relevant conduct” if such conduct is based on a prior act for which the defendant has already served time, but current laws do not bar such conduct.
- In drug cases, “ghost drugs” are drugs established by “hearsay” testimony (not evidence or proven facts), usually the testimony of felons seeking a reduction in their own sentence. Juries, not judges, should determine the amount of “ghost” drugs for which a defendant may be sentenced.
- A judge can set aside a citizen’s Second Amendment rights and arbitrarily add time to a nonviolent, first offender if a lawful handgun is found at the defendant’s home, such as in a lockbox in a nightstand. Even in cases of first time, non-violent offenders where a gun was not used in the commission of a crime, was not charged in the indictment, and was not found to be a part of the crime by a jury, judges can enhance sentencing by the mere presence of a gun on the scene.