Attacking the Guideline’s "second axis," criminal history, requires a keen understanding of how the Sentencing Commission justified guideline range increases based on past convictions and how the "science" behind the guidelines may be lacking. This session will discuss some of the common tools used to predict recidivism (criminal history scores, actuarial risk assessments) and how attorneys can use them to advocate for lower sentences.  It will also discuss common barriers to reentry and how they may be used to explain why your client may not be as "bad" as the criminal history score suggests. An important session, which explores how to advocate for departures based upon over representation of criminal history and variances based on 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. 

These presentations were recorded August 18-19, 2011, during the Multi-Track Seminar in Seattle, Washington.

The seminar was designed to offer in-depth instruction in a variety of substantive criminal defense areas. The five tracks for 2011 in Seattle were: 1) Immigration with a focus on Padilla 2) Sentencing in a post-Bookerworld; 3) Experts, Forensics & Science; 4) Computer Crimes and Handling of Electronic Discovery; and 5) Drugs, Guns and Money. Tracks 1-4 were presented in four distinct hour-long time blocks. Those sessions were presented on Thursday, August 18, 2011 and then repeated on Friday, August 19, 2011. This design provided seminar participants the opportunity to attend two of the four separate tracks that took place on Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday, August 20, 2011, seminar participants had the opportunity to attend both plenary and small group breakout sessions for the 5th track, Drugs, Guns & Money. These Saturday sessions addressed topics of general interest and importance to criminal defense practitioners. Each session was presented twice so that attendees were able to attend at least two areas of interest.

The following Multi-Track presentations were recorded and are available for viewing:

• Facebook, Myspace, The Joys/Dangers of Internet Social Networks and How to Use Them as a Litigation Tool
• Fingerprints: Understanding & Challenging Science
  
• Firearm and Toolmark Identification
• Recidivism, Recidivism, Recidivism:  How to Mitigate Your Client's Criminal History
  
• The Fine Print:  Avoiding Restrictive Conditions of Supervised Release 
• Attacking and Understanding DNA 
• Defending Against Armed Career Criminal & Career Offender Designations