Criminal Defense

How Much Jail Time Will I Get?

As a criminal attorney, this is one of the first questions I often hear when answering the phone or meeting with a client.  While how much jail time you will receive depends highly on the offense, the facts surrounding the alleged offense, your age, your prior criminal history, and a multitude of other potential relevant factors; there are guidelines that you can look to which will at least provide you with a best and worst case scenario should you be sentenced to a term of incarceration.  Sometimes the statutory, or guideline, sentences will be inaccurate, as they do not take into account plea agreements worked out by your criminal defense lawyer.

Nebraska State Criminal Case Offenses

In Nebraska state criminal cases, offenses are grouped into different classifications.  Each classification has a minimum and maximum punishment for that specified offense.  Crimes are grouped as either infractions, misdemeanors or felonies.  Then there are additional sub-classifications within each of those categories (i.e. Class I Felony vs. Class IV Felony).

The first place to start when trying to figure out how much jail time you are facing is to figure out what classification of offense, or offenses, the prosecuting attorney has charged you with.  I have attached two charts below taken from Sections 28-105 and Section 28-106  of the Nebraska Revised Statutes which list the corresponding penalties for different classifications of misdemeanor and felony offenses in the state of Nebraska.  Note that if you are charged in federal court, there are different statutes and different sentencing guidelines.

I did not attempt to include any federal sentencing guideline information below, as it is significantly more complicated.  Whether you are facing prosecution in state court or federal court, you will definitely want to discuss the range of penalties you are facing with you criminal lawyer, as it can be extremely confusing.  The information below is included simply to give you an initial idea of what your possible punishment may be should you plead guilty or be found guilty at trial.

 

*PLEASE NOTE THAT MANY OF THE FOLLOWING PENALTIES HAVE CHANGED SINCE 2012.  READ THE UPDATED LIST OF NEBRASKA FELONY CLASSIFICATIONS AND PENALTIES FOR FELONY OFFENSES IN NEBRASKA.

 

Misdemeanor – Classification of Penalties

Class I misdemeanor.……. Maximum — not more than one year
imprisonment, or one thousand dollars
fine, or both
Minimum — none
Class II misdemeanor……. Maximum — six months imprisonment, or
one thousand dollars fine, or both
Minimum — none
Class III misdemeanor…… Maximum — three months imprisonment,
or five hundred dollars fine, or both
Minimum — none
Class IIIA misdemeanor….. Maximum — seven days imprisonment, five
hundred dollars fine, or both
Minimum — none
Class IV misdemeanor……. Maximum — no imprisonment, five hun-
dred dollars fine
Minimum — one hundred dollars fine
Class V misdemeanor…….. Maximum — no imprisonment, one hun-
dred dollars fine
Minimum — none
Class W misdemeanor……. Driving under the influence or implied
consent
First conviction
Maximum — sixty days imprisonment and
five hundred dollars fine
Mandatory minimum — seven days
imprisonment and five hundred dollars
fine
Second conviction
Maximum — six months imprisonment and
five hundred dollars fine
Mandatory minimum — thirty days
imprisonment and five hundred dollars
fine
Third conviction
Maximum — one year imprisonment and
one thousand dollars fine
Mandatory minimum — ninety days
imprisonment
and one thousand dollars fine

Felony – Classification of Penalties

Class I felony Death
Class IA felony Life imprisonment
Class IB felony Maximum — life imprisonment
Minimum — twenty years imprisonment
Class IC felony Maximum — fifty years imprisonment
Mandatory minimum — five years imprisonment
Class ID felony Maximum — fifty years imprisonment
Mandatory minimum — three years imprisonment
Class II felony Maximum — fifty years imprisonment
Minimum — one year imprisonment
Class III felony Maximum — twenty years imprisonment, or
twenty-five thousand dollars fine, or both
Minimum — one year imprisonment
Class IIIA felony Maximum — five years imprisonment, or
ten thousand dollars fine, or both
Minimum — none
Class IV felony Maximum — five years imprisonment, or
ten thousand dollars fine, or both
Minimum — none

 

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