Criminal Sentencing

1
Criminal Sentencing

• Dr. Michelle L. Meloy

2
Eighth Amendment

• Excessive bail shall not be required, not
  excessive fines imposed, not cruel and unusual
  punishments inflicted.

3
Reasons for Sentencing

• Retribution an eye for an eye, a tooth for a
  tooth.
• Incapacitation lock them up and throw away the
  key.
• Deterrence let this sentence be a warning to
  others.
• Rehabilitation.

4
Retribution

• An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
• Focus on past behavior.
• Severity of the punishment is directly tied to
  the seriousness of the crime.
• Desire for revenge.
• Just deserts deserved punishment.

5
Incapacitation

• Lock them up and throw away the key.
• Crime can be prevented if criminals are
  physically restrained.
• Future-oriented goal is to prevent future
  crimes, not punish past ones.
• Focus is on the personal characteristics of the
  offender.

6
Deterrence

• Let this sentence be a warning to others.
• Purpose of punishment is the prevention of future
  crimes.
• Deterrence does not intend to change people, just
  deter them.
• Punishment should fit the criminal.
• General deterrence vs. specific deterrence.

7
Rehabilitation

• Criminal behavior is the result of social or
  psychological disorders, and treatment of such
  disorders should be the primary goal of
  corrections.
• Offenders should be treated, not punished.
• Sentences should fit the offender, not the
  offense.

8
Legislative Sentencing Responsibility

• Legislators initially responsible for creating
  laws sentencing options
• Indeterminate sentencing
• Consistent with rehabilitation goal
• Has both a minimum and a maximum term
• Actual term determined by parole board
• Determinate Sentencing
• Consistent with deterrence goal
• Specific number of years
• Actual term determined at sentencing

9
Judicial Sentencing Responsibility

• Judges choose among sentencing options provided
  by legislature
• Judges had wide sentencing discretion until the
  mid-1970s
• Judicial discretion reflects the rehabilitative
  model let the punishment fit the criminal
• Both models of justice opposed excessive judicial
  discretion
• Why???

10
Executive Sentencing Responsibility

• Governors, parole boards, and DOC make decisions
  on when to release an inmate
• Parole period of sentence suspended after some
  time is served in prison
• Good time prisoners are awarded days off as a
  reward for good behavior or participation in
  various programs
• Pardon an act of executive clemency that has
  the effect of releasing an inmate

11
Sentencing Options

• Probation
• Fines
• Restitution
• Intermediate sanctions
• Prison
• Parole
• Capital Punishment

12
Probation

• Punishment that allows the offender to remain in
  the community subject to certain conditions
• Principle alternative to imprisonment
• Designed as a means of maintaining control over
  offenders while permitting them to live in the
  community.
• Approximately 4 million adults are on probation
  in the U.S.

13
Factors to Consider in Granting Probation

• The defendant is not likely to commit another
  offense.
• The public does not require a maximum penalty
• The rehabilitation of the defendant does not
  require that he or she receive the penalty
  provided for the offense.

14
Intermediate Sanctions

• Between prison and probation
• Penalties include quasi-supervised probation and
  move along a continuum of increasingly severe
  sanctions, ending with imprisonment
• Diversionary Programs
• Fines
• Restitution
• Community service

15
Imprisonment

• Placing a person in a prison, jail, or similar
  correctional facility for committing a crime.
• The U.S. imprisons a larger share of its
  population than any other nation.
• Compared to Europe, the prison sentences are
  quite long in the U.S.

16
Cost of Imprisonment

• Construction costs for a single cell for a
  prisoner range from 75,000 to 100,000.
• Annual costs to house a prisoner range from
  20,000 to 30,000.

17
Imprisonment Jurisprudence

• Cooper v. Pate (1964) Prisoners can sue prison
  officials in federal court.
• Estelle v. Gamble (1976) Deliberate indifference
  to serious medical needs of prisoners constitutes
  the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain,
  and thus violates the Eighth Amendment.
• Rhodes v. Chapman (1981) Double-celling and
  crowding do not necessarily constitute cruel and
  unusual punishment.

18
Death Penalty

• Capital Offenses
• Used to include variety of crimes, including rape
• Coker v. Georgia (1977) rape is not a grave
  enough offence to justify the imposition of the
  death penalty.
• Now, only murder and treason are generally death
  penalty cases
• All Western democracies, except the U.S. have
  abolished the death penalty as a punishment.

19
Furman v. Georgia (1972)

• Invalidated all 37 state death penalty statutes
  based on cruel and unusual punishment of the 8th
  Amendment.
• Did not hold that the death penalty was
  unconstitutional, but, rather, the methods used
  were unconstitutional.
• Caused states to revise their death penalty
  legislation.

20
Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

• Held that the death penalty did not constitute
  cruel and unusual punishment under all
  circumstances.
• For a death penalty law to be constitutional it
  must provide for a bifurcated process.
• Guilt phase
• Penalty phase

21
Other Key Death Penalty Jurisprudence

• Thompson v. Oklahoma Youths who are 15 years or
  younger at the time of the crime may not be
  executed.
• Stanford v. Kentucky Youths who are 17 years old
  at the time of the crime may be executed.
• Penry v. Lynaugh It is constitutional to execute
  mentally retarded persons.
• Atkins v. Virginia Convicted defendants with an
  IQ of 70 or less may not be executed.
• Overturned Penry v. Lynaugh.

22
The Jury and the Death Penalty

• Witherspoon v. Illinois Prospective jurors
  cannot be excluded because they oppose the death
  penalty.
• Lockhart v. McCree Potential jurors may be
  excluded if they oppose the death penalty.
• Simmons v. South Carolina Defense may tell
  jurors that the only alternative to a death
  sentence is life without parole.
• Harris v. Alabama States may give judges the
  power to sentence a capital defendant to death
  even if the jury votes not to impose the death
  penalty.