Pennsylvania Code › Title 204 - JUDICIAL SYSTEM GENERAL PROVISIONS › Part VIII - CRIMINAL SENTENCING › Chapter 303 - SENTENCING GUIDELINES, 7TH EDITION › Section 303.9 - Guideline sentence recommendation: general

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a)
(1)
Basic sentence recommendations
. Guideline sentence
				recommendations are based on the Offense Gravity Score and Prior Record Score.
				In most cases, the sentence recommendations are found in the Basic Sentencing
				Matrix (§
										303.16(a)). The
				Basic Sentencing Matrix specifies a range of sentences (i.e.-standard range)
				that shall be considered by the court for each combination of Offense Gravity
				Score (OGS) and Prior Record Score (PRS).
(2)
Sentences for offenders under age
				18 for murder, murder of unborn child, or murder of law enforcement
				officer
. If an offender is under age 18 years at the time of the
				offense and the conviction occurred after June 24, 2012, the court has no
				authority to impose a sentence less than that required by the mandatory minimum
				provision established in statute and may impose a minimum sentence up to and
				including life (18Pa.C.S. §
											1102.1). If the
				court determines the convicted offender was under age? 18 at the time of the
				offense and the conviction occurred after June24, 2012, the court shall instead
				consider the Basic Sentencing Matrix for Offenders Under Age18 Convicted of 1st
				or 2nd Degree Murder (§ 303.16(b)).
(3)
Enhancement sentence
				recommendations.
Guideline sentence recommendations may include
				sentence enhancements, which provide increases to the basic sentence
				recommendations when an enhancement factor identified by the Commission is
				present. Enhancement sentence recommendations are described in §
										303.10. The application of an
				enhancement is determined by the court at sentencing, based on a preponderance
				of the evidence that the enhancement factor is present. Sentence enhancements
				can either be mandated by statute or directly adopted by the Commission.
(i) Several approaches are employed to
				establish enhancement sentence recommendations:
(A) assigning an offense gravity score to the
				offense that may be higher than comparable offenses without the enhancement, or
				assigning an offense gravity score equal to a comparable offense that includes
				the enhancement.
(B) increasing the
				assignment of an offense gravity score when the enhancement factor is present,
				which may include a subcategorization of the offense, in which a higher offense
				gravity score is assigned to the offense when the enhancement factor is
				present.
(C) adjusting the basic
				sentencing recommendation when the enhancement factor is present, by adding
				months to the top and bottom of the standard range.
(ii) If the court determines at sentencing
				that enhancement factors described in §
											303.10 are present, the court
				shall instead consider the enhancement sentence recommendations described in §
				303.10. The enhancement sentence recommendations shall not apply if the
				enhancement factor is:
(A) an element of the
				offense used to assign the Offense Gravity Score, pursuant to § 303.3(a);
				or
(B) a sentencing factor used to
				subcategorize the offense, pursuant to § 303.3(b).