Finding the Severity Level

In Minnesota, a felony severity level is a ranking assigned to each felony offense by the Sentencing Guidelines Commission, indicating the seriousness of the crime. These severity levels are represented on the vertical axis of the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Grids. Along with an offender's criminal history score, which is on the horizontal axis, the severity level helps determine the presumptive sentence length and whether the sentence is served in prison or on probation. There are a total of three grids, with drug and sexual assault and sexual assault related offenses on separate grids, with their own severity level rankings.

 

These severity levels range from:

The Standard Grid: 1 (least serious) to 11 (most serious) for most felonies

The Drug Offender Grid: D1 (least serious) to D9 (most serious)

The Sex Offender Grid: I (least serious) to A (most serious) 

 

The offense severity level is determined by the conviction offense, not the charging offense. The severity level for each felony offense is found in Guidelines section 5.A, Offense Severity Reference Table. Offenses subject to a mandatory life sentence, including first-degree murder and certain sex offenses under Minn. Stat. § 609.3455, subdivision 2, are excluded from the Guidelines by law. The table below displays the same information that can be found in Guidelines section 5.A and also includes which sentencing grid is used.