Ch. 14 After Conviction: Sentencing, Appeals, & Habeas Corpus (FINAL)

Question 1

A fixed sentence where the authority lies in the hands of the legislators and is meant to be a fitting punishment for the crime.

Answer 1

What is determinate sentencing?

Question 2

A type of sentencing where authority lies in the hands of judges and parole boards and is a tailored punishment to suit the criminal.

Answer 2

What is indeterminate sentencing?

Question 3

What type of sentencing was more common in the 1600s-1800s? Determinate or indeterminate?

Answer 3

Determinate/fixed

Question 4

List the 3 sentencing authority models.

Answer 4

1) Legislative
2) Judicial
3) Administrative

Question 5

How does the administrative sentencing model differ from the legislative and judicial models?

Answer 5

Legislators AND judges have sentencing authority in this model

Question 6

Who establishes the range of penalties for sentencing guidelines

Answer 6

A commission

Question 7

Who picks the sentence from the range listed in the sentencing guidelines?

Answer 7

The judge

Question 8

How are sentencing guidelines weighed (HINT: 2 elements/axes)?

Answer 8

1) Seriousness of crime
2) Criminal history of the offender

Question 9

What is it called when a judge goes above or below the range in sentencing guidelines?

Answer 9

Departure

Question 10

What is required for a sentencing departure to be granted?

Answer 10

Written rationales

Question 11

A nondiscretionary minimum amount of prison time that all offenders convicted of that offense must serve.

Answer 11

What is a mandatory minimum sentence?

Question 12

What are the 5 criticisms of mandatory minimum sentences?

Answer 12

1) Nearly all mandatory minimums related to drug & weapon offenses

2) Only 41% of defendants who qualify actually receive them

3) Introduce disparity into sentencing process

4) Substantial assistance motions not available to defendants at the very bottom who get punished more severely than those at the top

5) They shift discretion from judges to prosecutors

Question 13

This principle states that a punishment is cruel and unusual if its harshness is “grossly disproportionate” to the “gravity of the offense.”

Answer 13

What is the proportionality principle?

Question 14

Until 2000, the Court took a { } approach to criminal sentencing, leaving it up to { } discretion.

Answer 14

1) Hands-off
2) Judicial

Question 15

Does the Constitution put restrictions on judicial discretionary decision-making?

Answer 15

It places very few, if any

Question 16

What does the Constitution require for the Apprendi bright-line rule to apply?

Answer 16

Any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum, other than the fact of a prior conviction, must be submitted to a jury and proven beyond a reasonable doubt

Question 17

List the 2 procedural safeguards that must be available for the death penalty not to be considered “cruel and unusual” punishment.

Answer 17

1) The sentencing process must allow judges and/or juries to consider aggravating and mitigating circumstances

2) The law provides a review procedure to ensure against discriminatory application of the death penalty

Question 18

Which racial group is most likely to get executed via the death penalty?

Answer 18

White

Question 19

Do offenders have a Constitutional right to appeal their convictions?

Answer 19

NO

Question 20

In regards to appeals, all states and the U.S. government have a…

Answer 20

Statutory right to appeal

Question 21

Direct attacks that attack the decisions made by the trial court and/or jury’s guilty verdict.

Answer 21

What are appeals?

Question 22

Collateral attacks that indirectly attack the judgment in a new & separate non-criminal lawsuit.

Answer 22

What are habeas corpus proceedings?

Question 23

List the 3 principle doctrines that define the scope of appellate review of criminal cases in state courts.

Answer 23

1) Mootness
2) Raise-or-waive
3) Plain error

Question 24

According to the raise-or-waive doctrine, a defendant must make objections at trial in order to preserve those issues for appeal. What sub-doctrine is this?

Answer 24

The Doctrine of Judicial Economy

Question 25

Another name for habeas corpus.

Answer 25

What is the Great Writ of Liberty?

Question 26

What did early applications of habeas corpus look like (i.e., what was the purpose)?

Answer 26

To protect against tyrannical English kings