More Uncharged Conduct Sentencing

A federal judge in a Nevada case sentenced a man to 22 years in prison for bank fraud, where the Sentencing Guidelines call for a four year sentence, because the judge claims he also murdered his wife. A previous firearms charge resulted in an above guidelines sentence of eight yeras for the same reason.

Prosecutors have never actually charged anyone with murder, but if they decided to do so, they could charge the man with murder too, and in theory produce another sentence.

One of the biggest flaws in the current sentencing guidelines system is the ability of judges to consider uncharged and acquitted conduct.