Chapter 8 Flashcards
Charge bargaining (Charge reduction bargaining )
Negotiation process between the prosecutors and defense attorneys in which prosecutor downgrades the charges in return for a plea of guilty
Coconspirator
Another party besides the defendant who is alleged to have committed the same crime in concert with the defendant
Concession givers
Judges who make plea agreement offers to criminal defendants
Determinate sentencing
Sentencing to incarceration for a fixed period that must be served in full without parole
Differential discretion
View that sentencing disparities are more likely to happen during the informal plea bargaining than after trial.
Electronic monitoring
The use of electronic devices to monitor offender, probationer and parolees.
Fact-finders
Juries who hear cases, criminal or otherwise.
Factual basis for the plea
Evidence of one’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt to substantiate a plea bargaining agreement.
Federal misdemeanor
Any federal crime where the maximum punishment is less than a year in prison or jail.
Federal rule of criminal procedure
All protocols that must be followed during offender processing from arrest to conviction.
Flat time
Actual amount of time required to be served while incarcerated.
Going rate
Local view of the appropriate sentence for an offense.
Guilty plea
A defendant’s formal affirmation of guilt to the charges against him.
Habitual offender statutes
Generally provide a life imprisonment for chronic offenders who have been convicted of three or more serious felonies within a specific period.
Home confinement
House arrest.
Implicit plea bargaining
Occurs when defendants plea guilty in expectation of a more lenient sentence
Indeterminate sentencing
sentencing that encourages rehabilitation in which the judge sets the minimum and maximum period of incarceration.
Intensive supervised probation
probation that requires face-to-face meeting probation officers.
Judicial plea bargaining
Recommended sentence by judge who offers a sentence in exchange of a guilty plea.
Judicial privilege
Power of judges to change plea bargaining agreement and substitute their own punishment.
Jury waiver system
Occurs when defendants waive their constitutional right to a jury trial and enter a plea bargaining.
Negotiated guilty pleas
Pleas of guilty in exchange of a more lenient sentence.
Nolle prosequi
An entry made by the prosecutor on the record in a case and announced in court to indicate that the specified charges will not be prosecuted
Presentence investigative reports (PSIs)
Reports filed by probation containing information relative to the defendant.
Selective chivalry
View that judges tend to favor white females in their sentencing compared to other females of different ethnicities or males.
Self-incrimination
Act of exposing oneself to prosecution by answering questions that may demonstrate involvement in illegal behavior.
Sentence recommendation bargaining
Negotiation in which the prosecutor proposes a sentence in exchange for a guilty plea.
Three-strikes-and-you’re-out policies
proposition to incarcerate those who are convicted of three or more serious offenses, usually for life.
Trial delays
Any one of legitimate reasons that might delay a trial: crowded court dockets, health of courtroom actors…etc
Typicality hypothesis
View that judge give women greater consideration than men during sentencing, but only when their charges are consistent with stereotypes of females offenders.
U.S. sentencing guidelines
Rules implemented in November 1987 obligating federal judges to impose presumtive sentences on all convicted offenders.
