When a person is convicted of a serious crime such as drug trafficking or distribution, murder, armed robbery, etc., he or she can be sentenced to decades in prison as punishment. If you are truly guilty of the crime, having a good criminal defense lawyer can get you a much lighter sentence than you would normally expect. A great criminal defense attorney can help you get your sentence commutated, though.
What is a sentence commutation? A sentence commutation is when a person has been convicted and sentenced, but is released from jail by a state executive or in rare cases, the President of the United States. Once the entire appeals process is exhausted, this is generally the only option left for most.
Unlike a pardon, commuting a sentence does not nullify the conviction and is frequently a conditional item. Pardons also typically remove the entire sentence, whereas a commutated sentence might just be less severe than the original sentence. For example, a governor who has a personal issue with the death penalty may commutate an individual on death row's sentence to life in prison instead of death.
In the United States, individuals convicted of crimes must have their sentence commutation handled by the executive head of government. For individuals convicted of state crimes, the governor of the specific state is the only one permitted to commutate the sentence. For federal crimes, the President of the United States is the only one authorized to commutate the sentence.
To have a sentence commutated in Texas, an individual must apply with the Board of Pardons and Paroles. How well this application is filled out and whether it has all relevant issue can be best decided by an experienced criminal defense attorney.
Need to get your sentence commutated? Contact the law office of Cole Paschall Law, home of some of the best criminal defense attorneys in Fort Worth, TX at (817)-477-4100 or visit us at colepaschalllaw.com. We’ll immediately start preparing your commutation documents and lobbying on your behalf.