A Judge has the authority to sentence a convicted defendant so long as it is withing the statutory guidelines based upon 1) the offense committed, 2) the defendant's criminal history (if any), 3) Various factors in sentencing guideline scoring (if applicable). Thus, a Judge can sentence  a person to the maximum penalty, minimum penalty, or somewhere in between. A judge should not take a person's desire to appeal into consideration because that is done through a separate court other than the Judge who imposed the sentence.