Guidelines And Their Application A Case Study In Federal Courts

Sentencing is the most crucial stage in criminal justice system and crime is an inevitablernphenomenon in human social life. In addition, sentencing is a means designed torngive notice for the general public by described punishable crimes and to punish arncriminal convicted by a court of law. In ancient times, punishment was premised onrnthe principle of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” and punishments were degradingrnand inhumane by today‟s standard. Today‟s punishments are relatively humanernand focus on rehabilitation. Many universal human right instruments provide for thernrights of convicted persons and many countries are members of these instruments.rnSentencing disparity is a problem everywhere and countries have adopted sentencingrnguidelines to solve this problem. Ethiopia is one of them that adopted and revised thernfirst and the second sentencing guidelines in 2010 and 2013 respectively. The mainrnpurposes of the sentencing guidelines are to ensure proportionality, consistency, predictabilityrnand fairness of sentencing throughout the country in federal matters. However,rnthe principles of like cases- uniformity of decision - have not been realized inrnmany cases; the sentencing guidelines from design to practices reveal that it was unablernto stop unwarranted disparities of sentencing due to different factors. The lack ofrnclarity of sentencing guidelines, the lack of mutual understanding of the legal practitionersrnto the sentencing guidelines, lack of supervision and controlling mechanismsrnof the sentencing guidelines can be considered as the root causes of sentencing disparities.rnKey words: Sentencing Guidelines, Sentencing Disparities, Criminal Justice System,rnAnd Structured Sentencing.

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