Sentencing Chapter Eleven Reading Unit Seven Seminar Sentencing Chapter Eleven Reading

This unit can be found in our text in Chapter 10: Pretrial Activities and the Criminal Trial, and Chapter 11: Sentencing. These chapters cover pretrial procedures and sentencing procedures.

Before trial, courts often use pretrial release to shield the accused from the punitive power of the state. In doing so, they must balance the rights of the unconvicted defendant against the potential for future harm that he or she represents.

A significant issue facing pretrial decision makers is how to ensure that all defendants (rich or poor), are afforded the same degree of protection. This chapter identifies the criminal trial as the hallmark of American criminal justice and discusses the characteristic activities of today’s criminal courts.

The criminal trial, which owes its legacy to the development of democratic principles in Western society, builds on an adversarial process that pits prosecution against defense.

Trials have historically been viewed as peer-based fact-finding processes intended to protect the rights of the accused while disputed issues of guilt or innocence are resolved.

If a guilty verdict is found, then the next step in the criminal justice process begins. This is known as sentencing.

Please list some of the many goals of sentencing……………

The goals of criminal sentencing are many and varied, and they include retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restoration.

The just deserts model, with its emphasis on retribution and revenge, may be the most influential sentencing philosophy in the United States today.

Most states impose sentences based on either the determinate or indeterminate model. Please first define indeterminate sentencing.

Indeterminate sentences vary the term of incarceration; for example, when someone receives 5 to 15 years with the possibility of parole.

Now, please define determinate sentencing…………..

Determinate sentences prescribe a fixed period of incarceration, 10 years and offer no possibility for parole, but may offer reduction of the prison term for good behavior.

Class exercise time……..

We talked about goals of sentencing; now you be the judge and please give me the goal that would best rehabilitate each offender in the following scenarios. What sentence would hand down in each case?

The first offender is a burglar that has been arrested numerous times with no dependency issues (does not have to support a wife and kids).

Next one, a subject arrested for her 6th drunk driving charge and who lost her license several years ago but still continues to drive, however, she has never been in an accident or injured anyone.

Let’s move on....The last offense relates to an individual that is a sex offender and continues to visit grade school campuses. How would you start to sentence this individual? And remember NO duct taping to a tree!!!!

Please define aggravated circumstances involving a crime……….

Circumstances relating to the commission of a crime that make it more grave than the average instance of that crime.

Please define mitigating circumstances………….

Circumstances relating to the commission of a crime that may be considered to reduce the blameworthiness of the defendant.

Please define a writ of habeas corpus.

It is a writ that directs the person detaining a prisoner to bring him or her to a judicial officer to determine the lawfulness of imprisonment. The writ of habeas corpus is so important in the American judicial system because it prevents people from being incarcerated for no apparent reason.

It ensures the Constitutional rights of American citizens to be free from prosecution and punishment without absolute proof that a criminal act has been committed and that this person has committed such act beyond a reasonable doubt.

This is unique because in other countries all over the world people can be arrested for little or no reason. They do not have the Constitutional rights to protect them like we have here in America.

OK please type the following info for yourself: Home state, is death penalty allowed, are you for or against it…..

OK that is all I have for you this week. Thank You for your time.

Questions? Comments?

Class Dismissed. Have a good week.