The Criminal Defense Process Part 14 - What happens after a Guilty Verdict?

The Criminal Defense Process Part 14 - What Happens After a Guilty Verdict?

In this video, I am going to talk about what happens after a person has either plead guilty or been found guilty after a trial of a criminal act. Now if this is a felony matter, the person is going to have to do a couple of things before the judge can sentence them on the crime in which they have been found to be guilty of. A couple of things, including what they call an LSI-R, which is a level of service inventory-revised, and you are also going to have to do a PSI, or a pre-sentence investigation. These are things that are just done as a matter of course before a judge can sentence you in a criminal case. The LSI-R is a process that the defendant goes through after they have been found guilty or plead guilty. It is design is to help the judge determine recidivism rates, or that person’s chance that they are going to commit a crime after this. Aside from the LSI-R, you are going to do a PSI, or a pre-sentence investigation. This is required by law in any felony matter. What the PSI accomplishes is that it goes through your entire criminal history. It is going to provide the judge with an accurate criminal history score so that the judge can use that when he sentences you. Now, the LSI-R and the PSI are vital tools that the judge has to have at his disposal before they can accurately sentence you and fairly sentence you. Because these things are tools that the judge uses to sentence you, you get a say on what happens. For example, like the PSI, the pre-sentence investigation, if during the course of the pre-sentence investigation, there comes back some crime that you have never been convicted of that shows up on your pre-sentence investigation, you get a chance to object to the criminal history that has been produced by the PSI. Then, it is on the state to prove that you actually were convicted of that crime and you can dispute that. Once you have objected to the criminal history score, it is on the state to prove that you have actually been convicted of those crimes before the judge actually can use that and enhance any punishment that you get. If you have any other questions about the PSI (pre-sentence investigation) or the LSI-R, please view our website for a full detailed explanation.