I have an intox manslaughter case where I have offered 12 tdc agg' time. Defense counsel countered with 15 year non-agg. - I hear that the parole board is holding defendants for 75 percent of the sentence if it is an intox case, regardless of DW finding or not. any truth here? thank you

If there is a policy pattern today do not count on it lasting for the future. In the 1990s I could expect 1 month actual time for 1 yr paper time. Since then policy changes when a parolee commits a really publicized crime, when a committee or public action group lobbies hard, prisons become overcrowded, or any number of external factors. It is like what we tell jurors, you can consider the fact that parole exists but you can not consider how parole will apply to this case.

The cold hard facts are that a deadly weapon finding does guarantee the inmate will serve at least half of the sentence. There is no such guarantee without the deadly weapon finding.

While today's statistics might show that similar defendants are serving a substantial percentage of their sentence without a deadly weapon finding (I personally doubt that is true), a victim should not have great confidence that the same will be true in 5-10 years.

Active protest of parole is another consideration. With a deadly weapon finding, the victim will not need to protest release for a longer period of time. Without a deadly weapon finding, the victim (or family) will need to immediately begin a parole protest and then repeat that process every year.

All in all, a deadly weapon finding almost always trumps an even longer sentence without a deadly weapon finding.

Or, put another way- Why do you think the defense attorney is asking you to give his guy a longer sentence in exchange for dropping the 3(g) finding?

I had a guy on a felony DWI who had previously been convicted of Intox Manslaughter that we tried in 2006. He got 60 years. He's now eligible for parole. Stick with the Agg. time.

Thank you for the replies. That helped make my decision.
Regards,
Thomas Pfeiffer