Chapter 14

1. Chapter 14 Sentencing and Appeals

2. History of Sentencing in the U.S. • old English common law punished felonies with the death penalty • old English common law punished misdemeanors with public floggings • such penalties were brought to the American colonies • Bill of Rights (Eighth Amendment) prohibited cruel and unusual punishment • Benjamin Rush: “house of reform” • New York adopted a modified form of indeterminate sentencing

3. Criminal Punishment • George P. Fletcher: a violation of the rule results in the imposition of punishment by a court • Kennedy v. Mendoza-Martinez • concern that a law may be considered criminal punishment

4. Purposes of Punishment • retribution • imposes punishment based on just deserts • offenders should receive the punishment that they deserve based on the seriousness of their criminal acts • deterrence • specific deterrenceimposes punishment to deter or discourage a defendant from committing a crime in the future • general deterrencepunishes an offender as an example to deter others from violating the law • rehabilitation • intended to reform the offender and to transform him/her into a law-abiding and productive member of society • appeals to the idealistic notion that people are essentially good and can transform their lives when encouraged and given support

5. Purposes (cont.) • incapacitation • the removal of offenders from society to prevent them from continuing to menace others • selective incapacitationsingles out offenders who have committed certain serious offenses for lengthy incarceration • restoration • stresses the harm caused to victims of crime • requires offenders to engage in financial restitution and community service to compensate the victim and the community and to “make them whole once again”

6. Type of Punishment • imprisonment • fines • probation • intermediate sanctions • death

7. Approaches to Sentencing • determinate sentences • mandatory minimum sentences • intermediate sentences • presumptive sentencing guidelines

8. Judicial Sentencing Process • often filed by a probation officer • contains information regarding the defendant, including his/her criminal record and financial condition and other circumstances that may influence the defendant’s future behavior • addresses aggravating and mitigating circumstances • sentencing hearings • right of allocution • consecutive vs. concurrent sentences • clemency vs. pardon

9. Sentencing Guidelines • 1984 Sentencing Reform Act • sentences under the federal guidelines are based on a complicated formula that reflects the seriousness and characteristics of the offense and the criminal history of the offender • judges employ a sentencing grid and must sentence an offender within the narrow range where the offender’s criminal offense and criminal history intersect • judges are required to document the reasons for criminal sentences and are obligated to provide a specific reason for an upward or downward departure from the sentenced authorized by the guidelines

10. Sentencing Guidelines (cont.) • federal guidelines are much more complicated than most state guidelines • unconstitutional to enhance a sentence based on facts found to exist by the judge by a preponderance of the evidence rather than by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt • federal and state sentencing guidelines are advisory, not mandatory

11. Determinate Sentences • controversy over the Anti–Drug Abuse Act of 1986 • criticisms of determinate sentences • inflexibility • plea bargaining • increase in prison population • disparate effects • Hutto v. Davis

12. Methods of Punishment • most courts have not limited cruel and unusual punishment to acts condemned at the time of passage of the Eighth Amendment but have viewed it as an evolving concept • Furman v. Georgia • controversies over capital punishment and its various methods of implementation

13. Capital Punishment • Furman v. Georgia • “punishment must not be excessive” • punishment must “fit the crime” • punishment is to be imposed in an “evenhanded, nonselective, and nonarbitrary” manner • Woodson v. North Carolina • Gregg v. Georgia • aggravating circumstances • mitigating circumstances • weighing states vs. nonweighing states

14. Eighth Amendment and Sentences for a Term of Years • the length of a criminal sentence is the province of elected state legislators • judicial intervention to review the “proportionality” of a sentence for a term of years should be “extremely rare” and should be limited to criminal sentences that are “grossly disproportionate” to the seriousness of the offense • three strikes laws

15. Equal Protection • it is unconstitutional for a judge to base a sentence on a defendant’s race, gender, ethnicity, or nationality • a sentence should be based on defendant’s act rather than on a defendant’s identity • a defendant must demonstrate both a discriminatory impact and a discriminatory intent

16. Criminal Appeals • no due process right to appeal • courts routinely express a belief in the need for appeals • Griffin v. Illinois • final judgement rule • interlocutory appeals • plain error exception • harmless error standard • Chapman v. United States • automatic reversal rule • retroactivity

17. Habeas Corups • collateral remedies • a civil lawsuit in which the defendant (now called the petitioner or plaintiff) asks the court for a writ on the grounds that he/she is being unlawfully detained • William Blackstone: habeas corpus is“the most celebrated writ in the English law” • Article 1, Section 9, Paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the Public Safety may require it” • Fay v. Noia • Justice Powell, Schnecklothv.Bustamonte:the costs of federal courts engaging in active habeas corpusreview • Stone v. Powell

18. Requirements for Bringing a Habeas Corpus Claim • plaintiff must allege a violation of a federal constitutional right or a violation of federal law • the individual on whose behalf the petition is filed must be in custody • AEDPA: a state prisoner file a petition in federal district court “within a year of the final State court review of the conviction and sentence . . . or the expiration of the time for seeking such review” • the plaintiff must exhaust state remedies before filing a petition for habeas corpus

19. Requirements for Habeas Corpus (cont.) • whether the state court decision on the law and the facts is reasonable • a district court decides the case based on the written trial record and on the written judgments of the state appellate courts • the petitioner must demonstrate by a preponderance of the evidence that the constitutional error had a substantial and injurious impact or influence on the jury’s guilty verdict • the individual filing a petition for habeas corpus may not rely on a new rule of law announced by the Supreme Court following the exhaustion of his or her direct state appeals

20. Requirements for Habeas Corpus (cont.) • a federal court will not hear a habeas corpuspetition in those instances in which a defendant failed follow state procedures and did not raise an objection at trial and exhaust state appeals • the successive petition doctrineprohibits a second petition that raises a claim that has been presented in a prior habeaspetition • the abuse of writ doctrineprohibits raising an issue that a defendant did not raise in the first petition, but could have raised