PENAL INSTITUTIONS Sentence and Punishment: Impose Mandatory Imprisonment Term for Serious Violent Felonies; Deny First Offender Treatment to Those Persons Committing Serious Violent Felonies
The Act imposes a mandatory term of imprisonment of not less than ten years for a defendant who commits a serious violent felony. The Act further provides that no portion of the ten-year sentence may be suspended, stayed, or reduced by any form of parole or commutation. The seven serious violent felonies include murder, rape, armed robbery, kidnaping, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, and aggravated sexual battery. The Act also explicitly provides that a defendant convicted of a serious violent felony shall be ineligible for first offender treatment
