new-york-state sentencing
Are there any sentencing guidelines for the crimes Trump is accused of?
<p>Does New York have sentencing guidelines? If so, what do they say about the felony falsification of business records, and the associated conspiracy, that Donald Trump has been charged with?</p>

<p>New York State's sentencing laws do not have sentencing guidelines in the sense that the federal courts do.</p>
<p>Donald Trump is an individual with no prior felony convictions who is charged with Class E felonies. The statutory sentencing range for these offenses under New York Penal Law Section 70.02(1)(d) is a determinate sentence of 1.5 to 4 years. Under some circumstances, alternative sentencing (like probation) might be authorized.</p>
<p>Essentially the whole ballgame is the discretion of the sentencing judge and the question of whether the sentences of conviction would be served concurrently or consecutively.</p>
<p>The sentencing hearing would happen only after a jury enters its verdict on guilt or innocence, and only in the event that there was a conviction on at least one count of the indictment. It would be an evidentiary hearing at which evidence regarding an appropriate sentence would be presented by the prosecution and the defense.</p>
<p>I am not familiar enough with the facts of the complaint and the applicable New York State Penal Law provisions to know how the issue of consecutive v. concurrent sentences would be resolved.</p>
