Whenever possible, it is a good idea to order sentencing minutes of co-defendants. Not only will you know what your judge thinks of the crime, but you might get an idea of what he thinks of sentencing in general.
I was in front of Judge Patterson of the Southern District of New York who is a wonderful compassionate judge so, truth be told, there is not much you are going to find out about him or so I thought. But I came to learn what his principal criticism of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines was and that was that it does not give a first offender a second chance.
Now if I had known that I would have pressed more emphatically the fact that my client was a first offender. Now if the lawyer for my client’s co defendant orders the minutes, he will see what Judge Patterson beef with the guidelines is and use that fact to his own client’s advantage. Why did I not order the previous co-defendant’s minutes? My client was the first one to be sentenced.
David Zapp