What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia
My husband is currently incarerated on a 15 yr 1st offender "alfred plea" with 5yrs to serve in Ga. 6-22-11 will make 1 year since he has been incarcerated. I hired a lawyer & we filed a motion for a sentence reduction. We went to court on April 6 asking for the reduction. The Judge asked to review the D.A.'s file (which the D.A. provided a week later) & our lawyers file. It is now over 6 weeks later & we still have not heard an answer. I have called our lawyer about 4 times since court and he said that the Judge was in court for 2 full weeks, took vacation the next wk, had a death in the family, and just hasn't had a lot of time to work on it as soon as we orginally thought. My lawyer said this particular lawyer is generally pretty good with getting his orders out fairly quick but he has been very busy here lately. He says he is expecting to hear something any day now though. In court, while asking for the reduction, our lawyer said that giving the evidence we have provided, if originally requested by the DA or my husbands previous lawyer(which neither requested) my husband should have been charged if anything with a misdeamnor, not a felony, and could've received 12 mths probation. He explained that apparently my husbands previous lawyer could have done a lot more than what he did and as a result my husband to a plea deal. Our lawyer suggested in court that the Judge review both files and consider reducing his sentence to time served or 12 mths served. My lawyer explained that sentence reductions can be a up hill battle but after he checked into it he said he felt confident that giving the DA's little to no physical evidence (and that fact that they apparently did very little investigation on this case) and our evidence proving my husband was over charged that we could have a good chance. With my lack of knowledge in this area and many questions, I was hoping I could get other expert opinions with experience and/or familiar with sentence modifications/reductions. I know I can ask "my lawyer" since I'm paying him, which I have already done, however, I haven't been able to find much info on the internet relating to my questions and I'm in hopes of getting broader opinions based on experience/knowledge on this subject other than just my lawyers. Some of my questions are: Is it likely that the Judge will give a yes or no answer to time served or 12 mths or will he more likely give his own judgement on what he feels my husband should be reduced to..i.e. 2,3, or 4 years? Also, how will the first offender my husband recieved in his original sentence play in with the reduction (will he keep the 1st offender)? Is it likely that if granted the reduction, will the Judge most likely just reduce the prison time (5 yrs to serve) and keep the 10 yrs probation or exchange prison time to probation time? Will the Judge be likely to just reduce the time or we he be likely to possibly reduce the felony to a misdeamnor and the time as well? I know none of you "know" for certain any of the answers to my questions and would probably need to see the court documents and files to make too many real judgements, but hopefully I can get a better general concept of what I might/might not expect. Sorry for the lengthy post and so many questions. I'll greatly appreciate any guesses or input anyone may have. Thanks!
My husband is currently incarerated on a 15 yr 1st offender "alfred plea" with 5yrs to serve in Ga. 6-22-11 will make 1 year since he has been incarcerated. I hired a lawyer & we filed a motion for a sentence reduction. We went to court on April 6 asking for the reduction. The Judge asked to review the D.A.'s file (which the D.A. provided a week later) & our lawyers file. It is now over 6 weeks later & we still have not heard an answer. I have called our lawyer about 4 times since court and he said that the Judge was in court for 2 full weeks, took vacation the next wk, had a death in the family, and just hasn't had a lot of time to work on it as soon as we orginally thought. My lawyer said this particular lawyer is generally pretty good with getting his orders out fairly quick but he has been very busy here lately. He says he is expecting to hear something any day now though. In court, while asking for the reduction, our lawyer said that giving the evidence we have provided, if originally requested by the DA or my husbands previous lawyer(which neither requested) my husband should have been charged if anything with a misdeamnor, not a felony, and could've received 12 mths probation. He explained that apparently my husbands previous lawyer could have done a lot more than what he did and as a result my husband to a plea deal. Our lawyer suggested in court that the Judge review both files and consider reducing his sentence to time served or 12 mths served. My lawyer explained that sentence reductions can be a up hill battle but after he checked into it he said he felt confident that giving the DA's little to no physical evidence (and that fact that they apparently did very little investigation on this case) and our evidence proving my husband was over charged that we could have a good chance. With my lack of knowledge in this area and many questions, I was hoping I could get other expert opinions with experience and/or familiar with sentence modifications/reductions. I know I can ask "my lawyer" since I'm paying him, which I have already done, however, I haven't been able to find much info on the internet relating to my questions and I'm in hopes of getting broader opinions based on experience/knowledge on this subject other than just my lawyers. Some of my questions are: Is it likely that the Judge will give a yes or no answer to time served or 12 mths or will he more likely give his own judgement on what he feels my husband should be reduced to..i.e. 2,3, or 4 years? Also, how will the first offender my husband recieved in his original sentence play in with the reduction (will he keep the 1st offender)? Is it likely that if granted the reduction, will the Judge most likely just reduce the prison time (5 yrs to serve) and keep the 10 yrs probation or exchange prison time to probation time? Will the Judge be likely to just reduce the time or we he be likely to possibly reduce the felony to a misdeamnor and the time as well? I know none of you "know" for certain any of the answers to my questions and would probably need to see the court documents and files to make too many real judgements, but hopefully I can get a better general concept of what I might/might not expect. Sorry for the lengthy post and so many questions. I'll greatly appreciate any guesses or input anyone may have. Thanks!