Ch13 - Admission/Application Essay Example

CH13 Sentencing of criminals by a court of law is a procedural event and follows a number of guidelines. The main guidelines include, retribution, vengeance, deterrence and incapacitation. Apart from these, other forms of punishment for crime may include such things as fines, suspension of sentence, community programs and probation. Prison sentences can be grouped into three categories; flat or determinant which is established by the legislature, indeterminate which is either fixed minimum or fixed maximum and the last one is where the parole board determines the time spent in prison.

Sentencing has gone through a number of changes over the years. Though initially the court was using mandatory sentencing statutes, this technique was seen to decrease the court’s discretion. In 2004, amendments were made and the court no longer uses such statutes. One of the methods of sentencing is the presumptive fixed sentencing where the legislature sets the sentencing time frame between 3 to 10 years. In this case, the judge sets the actual time. In general, 40 states have legitimate sentencing and good time credits are either restricted or eliminated.

The sentencing process can start with an input from the DA, the defense attorney or sometimes the investigator. Before sentencing, a series of investigations are done for fair trial. This is normally done by the court’s probation agency and is done on such issues as prior conviction, family situation, education, job history and both physical and mental health. Such investigations are used by the probation or parole officers and the parole board for trials. After sentence hearing, the convicted offender can address the court in a process called allocution.

The sentencing can be in form of fines, imprisonment, probation, restitution, death and concurrent or consecutive sentence. Execution in this case can be done in many ways; gas chamber, electrocution, death by hanging and lethal injection. A debate on death penalty mostly looks at the economic effect, public opinion, deterrence, retribution, community protection, irreversibility, discrimination and brutalization. Some states have mandatory death sentence for certain crimes while other states have a two stage procedure in sentencing; trial and conviction.

In case of an unfair trial, the defendant has a right to appeal and this is done through plain error rule, automatic reversal rule and violation or constitutional rights. Appeals must be filed between 30 and 90 days. During this time, no new testimony or evidence can be presented. Works citedMcPeake, Robert. Criminal Litigation and Sentencing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.