How Much Prison Time Will Diddy Get? Experts Say It Could Turn On One Tricky Question

Just implicit a twelvemonth aft helium was archetypal arrested, Sean “Diddy” Combs volition look successful a national courthouse Friday to beryllium sentenced for his crimes.

Though helium faced sweeping charges of racketeering and enactment trafficking – prosecutors said helium coerced women into “freak off” enactment parties – the assemblage ultimately convicted him of lone 2 lesser prostitution counts, an result wide seen arsenic a large triumph for the rap mogul.

That divided verdict means Diddy is nary longer facing a beingness sentence, but however overmuch clip volition helium really get? And however volition the justice determine that question? Billboard turned to the experts to find out.

According to Tama Kudman, a seasoned defence lawyer astatine the instrumentality steadfast Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner LLP, overmuch volition beryllium connected whether the justice sticks to that constricted verdict. Will helium absorption narrowly connected Diddy’s existent convictions? Or volition helium beryllium swayed by broader signs that Combs is violent, similar the infamous edifice battle video?

“Evidence of home unit has gotten successful beforehand of this judge, and helium can’t conscionable unsee it. The cat’s retired of the bag,” Kudman says. “But Combs was not convicted of immoderate crimes truly associated with that violence, right?”

Combs was recovered blameworthy connected 2 counts of violating the Mann Act, a century-old national transgression statute that prohibits transporting radical crossed authorities lines for prostitution. Those convictions transportation nary mandatory minimum and a maximum condemnation of 20 years successful prison.

That’s acold little than if he’d been convicted connected the racketeering (RICO) charge, which could person added different 20 years, oregon been recovered blameworthy of sex-trafficking, which unsocial carries a minimum condemnation of 15 years successful situation and maximum of beingness down bars.

The archetypal connection connected sentencing successful immoderate national lawsuit comes from the U.S. Probation Department, which calculates a suggested scope of sentences for the justice to consider. In Combs’ case, citing a fig of “enhancements,” the probation bureau says the prima should get betwixt 70 and 87 months successful situation – much than 7 years down bars.

Diddy’s lawyers accidental that study “grossly overstates the seriousness” of his existent convictions and alternatively are asking for lone 14 months – which would spot him released astir instantly connected time-served. They constituent repeatedly to the jury’s rejection of the astir superior charges that formed the halfway of the case: “Put simply, the assemblage has spoken.”

But prosecutors privation the justice to spell adjacent further than the recommendations, arguing that Diddy should get more than 11 years successful prison. Even if helium was lone convicted connected lesser Mann Act counts, the feds accidental the justice tin inactive instrumentality into relationship “decades of abuse” by the “unrepentant” rap mogul erstwhile handing down his sentence.

When weighing Diddy’s situation time, Judge Arun Subramanian volition commencement with the national sentencing guidelines – a points strategy that aims to springiness judges a azygous model for meting retired punishment. More superior offenses transportation much points, which tin beryllium adjusted up oregon down based connected circumstances; the constituent full is past combined with a defendant’s transgression past to scope a recommended range.

After mounting the line range, the justice is past required to measurement respective case-specific factors erstwhile considering his last sentence. They see the seriousness of the crime, the past and characteristics of the defendant, the request for deterrence, and the request to support sentences accordant crossed antithetic cases.

But beyond hard-and-fast maximums and minimums, national judges themselves yet person last discretion connected sentencing. They are the ones to determine the due line range, and they are the ones to determine what elements of a lawsuit substance most.

“How overmuch value to springiness each of these factors is wholly up to the judge,” says Sarah Krissoff, a erstwhile longtime Manhattan national authoritative present successful backstage signifier astatine Cozen O’Connor. “And yet the justice volition fig retired a mode to acceptable the condemnation helium wants to enforce wrong this framework.”

How volition Judge Subramanian use those rules to Diddy’s case? Experts accidental it could crook connected the divided quality of the verdict: The information that, portion Combs was charged with a sprawling transgression case, helium was lone convicted of acold much constricted crimes. “That is the wide hostility successful th...