Options to Mitigate Sentences for Drug Trafficking

North Carolina’s special sentencing rules for drug trafficking are tough. A recently revised summary of those rules is available here. They include mandatory imprisonment and fines that go well beyond the sentence for a crime of comparable offense class on the regular Structured Sentencing grid. A first-time offender convicted of Class G sale of a Schedule I controlled substance could get an 8-month minimum sentence and probation. A Class G trafficker gets 35–51 months, active, plus a $25,000 fine. As Jessie noted in this prior post, trafficking sentences can pile up quickly. With that in mind, I get a fair number of questions about situations where trafficking is the right charge as factual matter, but everyone, including the prosecutor, feels that the sentencing rules of G.S. 90-95(h) aren’t the appropriate measure of justice in the case. This post collects some of the options for dialing a trafficking sentence back to something between the mandatory sentences of G.S. 90-95(h) and the regular sentencing grid. Substantial assistance. Under G.S. 90-95(h)(5), the sentencing judge can give a person convicted of trafficking essentially any sentence—a lower prison term, a reduced fine, or probation—if the judge finds that that the defendant has provided “substantial assistance in the identification, arrest, or conviction of any accomplices, accessories, co-conspirators, or principals.” The assistance offered need not be limited to accomplices, etc., in the defendant’s individual case; the court can consider assistance offered in the prosecution of other cases. State v. Baldwin, 66 N.C. App. 156, 158 (1984). There is no [...]