Ch. 14 After Conviction: Sentencing, Appeals, & Habeas Corpus (FINAL) Flashcards
A fixed sentence where the authority lies in the hands of the legislators and is meant to be a fitting punishment for the crime.
What is determinate sentencing?
A type of sentencing where authority lies in the hands of judges and parole boards and is a tailored punishment to suit the criminal.
What is indeterminate sentencing?
What type of sentencing was more common in the 1600s-1800s? Determinate or indeterminate?
Determinate/fixed
List the 3 sentencing authority models.
1) Legislative
2) Judicial
3) Administrative
How does the administrative sentencing model differ from the legislative and judicial models?
Legislators AND judges have sentencing authority in this model
Who establishes the range of penalties for sentencing guidelines
A commission
Who picks the sentence from the range listed in the sentencing guidelines?
The judge
How are sentencing guidelines weighed (HINT: 2 elements/axes)?
1) Seriousness of crime
2) Criminal history of the offender
What is it called when a judge goes above or below the range in sentencing guidelines?
Departure
What is required for a sentencing departure to be granted?
Written rationales
A nondiscretionary minimum amount of prison time that all offenders convicted of that offense must serve.
What is a mandatory minimum sentence?
What are the 5 criticisms of mandatory minimum sentences?
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
This principle states that a punishment is cruel and unusual if its harshness is “grossly disproportionate” to the “gravity of the offense.”
What is the proportionality principle?
Until 2000, the Court took a { } approach to criminal sentencing, leaving it up to { } discretion.
1) Hands-off
2) Judicial
Does the Constitution put restrictions on judicial discretionary decision-making?
It places very few, if any
What does the Constitution require for the Apprendi bright-line rule to apply?
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
List the 2 procedural safeguards that must be available for the death penalty not to be considered “cruel and unusual” punishment.
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
Which racial group is most likely to get executed via the death penalty?
White
Do offenders have a Constitutional right to appeal their convictions?
NO
In regards to appeals, all states and the U.S. government have a…
Statutory right to appeal
Direct attacks that attack the decisions made by the trial court and/or jury’s guilty verdict.
What are appeals?
Collateral attacks that indirectly attack the judgment in a new & separate non-criminal lawsuit.
What are habeas corpus proceedings?
List the 3 principle doctrines that define the scope of appellate review of criminal cases in state courts.
1) Mootness
2) Raise-or-waive
3) Plain error
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?
The Doctrine of Judicial Economy
Another name for habeas corpus.
What is the Great Writ of Liberty?
What did early applications of habeas corpus look like (i.e., what was the purpose)?
To protect against tyrannical English kings
