Cant add about what others received but will tell you in my state it is mandatory 3 years. My state adopted or whatever mandatory sentencing. With CP it is 3 years. Judges do not have discretion anymore. That can be good or bad depending how you look at it. It is a crap shoot. Have you ever played poker? Do you gamble? What is it worth? There is something to be said about mandatory sentencing but do you take the gamble with a judge? In the end the Judge holds the key.

I have seen where the DA and the Public defender have an agreement for the sentence. But in reality the Judge does not have to go with that. He can do what he wants.

It is a hard place where you are right now. So sorry for what you are going through now and in the future. So do what you have to. Follow your heart!

Since it was a federal prosecution, he did not do too bad on the 27 months. There is a mandatory minimum in the federal system of five years in prison for distribution and receipt but no mandatory minimum for simple possession.

I help a lot of people dealing with CP convictions and considering how the feds normally work, he did not get a bad deal.

The probation is a little long, but after he does some of that he can petition the court to have the probation modified or dropped.

It could have been much worse.

rewdiazepam

I got 18 months in 3 years SR, case was in 2001. My guidelines were before the PROTECT ACT passed. I'd say your husband did OK on the prison time but got killed with SR time. I don't know if I have seen any possession only cases with more than 5 years SR, unless it was part of the deal to drop a receipt or distribution charge.
When I served my time almost every new prisoners' sentence was 5 years prison, 3 years SR. It seemed boilerplate from 2004-2007. Now it seems as if Judges are going below the guidelines more...for possession only.

daughter got 151 months fed prison and 15yrs probation for possession and what they called distribution.

was she in any way involved in production? I am sorry, that is a pretty long time. Hopefully her lawyer advised her to admit drug/alcohol problems (even if she doesn't actually have any) to qualify for RDAP's 1 year off.

nope, no production, gotta love TN! her PD wasn't worth a shit and i couldn't afford a private attorney.

My husband is federal. He got 3 years and 5 years probation.

I am federal too, I was extremely lucky and received no prison time and 5 years probation. Tomorrow is 3 years 8 months left, if they take me to the door.

Shoot, can't edit my last post, but mine was for straight possession too. Originally 3 charges, but they dropped two with the plea so had 1 charge left. Had many friends and family send about 32 letters to the judge that he directly quoted, and had quite a crowd with me at the federal courthouse too.

Cmckee, congrats on your sentence and hope you successfully complete probation. What state were your federal charges from? Do you hae to take SOTP? And does your PO bust your chops, because he/she feels that you got off too easy?

cmcmckee your charges sound identical to my husband's. He plead down to one charge. It shows how unequal the "justice" system is.

In Arizona your best bet is for your charges to be federal. The states mandatory minimum laws for CP is 10 years for each count. Each picture is a separate count and say it's a short (or God forbid long) video that was downloaded, each still image in the video counts as one image. The sentences must run consecutively so back to back. There was a well known case out of the AZ courts Morton Burger vs The State of AZ , he had no prior convictions but was charged with 20 of exploitation of a minor (CP) , took it to trial, which always makes the judges furious and received a 200 year sentence. The images were downloaded on peer 2 peer and he did not know the victim. He appealed to the Supreme Court, citing cruel and unusual punishment and lost . Ohh and if you ever do see the light of day you are on lifetime probation with an ankle monitor as well as the obvious registration

I'm in eastern Virginia, and in the Richmond jurisdiction. I do have to take SOTP, not sure for how long though but he is a decent guy and steers conversation as we talk and really seems to want to work with us. As for my PO, she is alright too, I don't see her often since we're 50 miles+ from the courthouse. She has problems accepting the fact that we have kids and our lives and vacations and whatnot revolve around them, not ME. She did get me approval to go to North Carolina for a week for Thanksgiving, and after that I can't really say anything bad about her at all. Could be a LOT worse, just wish getting steady employment was easier!