The Sentencing Guidelines Commission assigns severity-level rankings to felony offenses to indicate offense seriousness. In determining how, or whether, offenses should be assigned a severity level, the Commission considers how district courts have generally sentenced the offenses, along with the maximum penalty established by the Legislature, rankings for similar crimes, and other relevant information. The Commission has intentionally left a number of felony offenses unranked.
An unranked offense typically has one or more of the following characteristics: (1) the offense is rarely prosecuted; (2) the offense covers a wide range of underlying conduct; or (3) the offense is new and the severity of a typical offense cannot yet be determined. If a significant number of future convictions are obtained under one or more of the unranked offenses, the Commission will reexamine the ranking of these offenses and assign an appropriate severity level for a typical offense. Practitioners can contact the Commission for information on severity levels assigned to unranked offenses.
When the court sentences an unranked offense, the court must assign an appropriate severity level for the offense and specify on the record why that particular level was assigned. The court may consider, but is not limited to, the following factors: