§ 303.16(a). Basic Sentencing Matrix.
Source The provisions of this § 303.16(a) adopted February 15, 1994, effective August 12, 1994, 24 Pa.B. 2483; amended March 14, 1997, effective June 13, 1997, 27 Pa.B. 1252; amended February 9, 2005, effective June 3, 2005, 35 Pa.B. 1508; amended September 5, 2008, effective December 5, 2008, 38 Pa.B. 4971; amended September 13, 2012, effective December 28, 2012, 42 Pa.B. 6072; renumbered as § 303.16(a) and amended June 6, 2013, effective September 27, 2013, 43 Pa.B. 3655; corrected April 4, 2014, effective September 27, 2013, 44 Pa.B. 1967; amended June 26, 2015, effective September 25, 2015, 45 Pa.B. 3457; amended June 1, 2017, effective December 1, 2017, applicable to all sentences for offenses committed on or after January 1, 2018, 47 Pa.B. 5141; amended September 6, 2019, effective January 1, 2020, 49 Pa.B. 5110; amended September 25, 2020, effective January 1, 2021, 50 Pa.B. 5341. Immediately preceding text appears at serial pages (399180) to (399181).
Notes of Decisions Consecutive Sentence
In imposing a sentence, the trial judge may determine whether, given the facts of a particular case, a sentence should run consecutive to or concurrent with another sentence being imposed; trial judge clearly disclosed his reasons for sentencing appellant to consecutive sentences, i.e., appellant sold an unregistered security to 69 elderly victims, defrauding them of over $2.5 million and causing them great hardship and financial distress. Commonwealth v. Perry, 883 A.2d 599, 603—604 (Pa. Super. 2005).
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance by not filing a post-sentence motion challenging excessiveness of defendant’s sentence for drug offenses; defendant was sentenced to a minimum of 120 months which was over five times the aggravated sentence of 22 months. Commonwealth v. Green, 957 A.2d 1238, 1242 (Pa. Super. 2008).
Range of Sentence
The standard range designated in the sentencing guidelines is the standard range for the minimum sentence. Dunn v. Colleran, 247 F.3d 450 (3rd Cir. 2001).
Sentencing Outside Guideline Recommendations
Sentencing court abused its discretion in imposing the statutory maximum sentences on each respective criminal court where the court failed to make a legally sufficient contemporaneous statement on the record and where the court advanced reasons for imposing a sentence in the aggravated range and then imposed sentence outside of the guidelines. Commonwealth v. Wagner, 702 A.2d 1084 (Pa. Super. 1997).
Cross References This section cited in 204 Pa. Code § 303.9 (relating to guideline sentence recommendation: general).
No part of the information on this site may be reproduced for profit or sold for profit.
This material has been drawn directly from the official Pennsylvania Code full text database. Due to the limitations of HTML or differences in display capabilities of different browsers, this version may differ slightly from the official printed version.
