@jjmacnab How does sentencing work for this? Judge has a chart, or...
@b4cks4w Judges rely on a formula called the federal sentencing guidelines. It takes into account fact stuff like the guilty counts and the defendant's past criminal record, but adds in some harder to quantify factors like remorse, sophistication of the crime, and so on.
Most of charges will be concurrent so more guilty counts don't necessarily mean more jail time (3 yrs for 1 count + 2 yrs for another count = 3 yrs total,) but some may be consecutive (3 yrs + 2 yrs = 5 yrs.)
@b4cks4w After the final verdicts, the Bureau of Prisons will prepare a pre-sentencing report which will detail a lot of factors that the jury didn't see (stuff like other criminal history.)
FWIW, judges tend to stick to the federal sentencing guideline formula. If they want to "depart" from it, they will often explain why to preserve their ruling from appeal.
The defendants can't start the appellate process until judgment is final (aka they've been sentenced.)
@b4cks4w Since they're likely to receive longer sentences in this case, the Bureau of Prisons will assign to at least a medium security facility. That is where some seriously nasty and dangerous dudes reside.
Under federal law, they will have to serve at least 85% of their sentence, assuming they qualify for the 15% reduction for good behavior. This isn't like state prison where someone can get 6-20 years, but be out in 3.
@jjmacnab @b4cks4w
The more egregious the conduct, the less likely sentences will be concurrent, as a sort of a rule of thumb.