Includes updates on sentencing and pre-trial release provisions that have changed since last year!
Fully updated for 2025 with all the changes from the SAFE-T Act, including an expanded and up-to-date section on the pre-trial release provisions that took effect on Sept. 18, 2023.
This essential guide for criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, and judges condenses everything you need to know before appearing at a sentencing or pre-trial release hearing. The book has been fully updated to include changes made by the SAFE-T Act, including changes to youthful offender sentencing in criminal court and the new pre-trial release provisions that took effect on Sept. 18, 2023, with the abolition of cash bail. It includes a comprehensive sentencing guide and a detailed listing of the most common felony offenses, which provides statutory citations, offense classes, and relevant notes. The sentencing guide covers a wide array of topics such as firearm enhancements, extended term sentences, non-probationable cases, mandatory Class X offenses and sentencing, consecutive sentencing, merger, juvenile sentencing, truth-in-sentencing, and more. Relevant case law, statutes, notes, examples, and practice tips are provided throughout.
This must-have book is authored by Darren O’Brien who is now in private practice after a 30-year career at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted thousands of defendants and tried hundreds of cases.