Federal defendants benefit by new sentencing laws

January 25, 2019

With the new law in place (First Step Act), the “safety valve” expands allowing federal judges to impose less severe sentences to certain qualifying defendants.

On January 25th, Ricardo M. Gonzalez gave a general lecture to criminal lawyers in Tijuana, Baja California during his visit as a guest speaker for the Binational Bar Association.

The “safety valve” has been a legal mechanism that gives federal judges discretion to go around the mandatory sentencing guidelines.

Gonzalez is a criminal lawyer who has handled hundreds of federal cases at the Southern District of California for the last 30 years.