Quiz 9 AJ10

As of January 1, 2016, approximately how many persons were on death rows in the United States?

As of OCTOBER 1, 2012: 3,146

Reductions in sentences for death row inmates, which are granted by a state's governor, are called

Commutations

From which of the following sources does the federal government's Crime Victims Fund receive its funding? (pg. 320)

Deprived from fines, forfeited bonds, and penalties paid by federal criminal offenders, as well as gifts, bequests, and donations.

Which of the following statements is true about determinate sentencing?

Determinate sentencing is a sentence w/ a fixed period of incarceration, which eliminates the decision making responsibilities of parole boards. the hope is that it will at least get criminals off the streets for longer periods of time more humane b/c prisoners know exactly when they will be released three types of determinate sentencing: flat-time, mandatory, and presumptive.

In the context of sentencing, judges are limited by the U.S. Constitution ______________ prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments and statutory provisions.

Eighth Amendment

About one-third of Americans executed since 1608 have been women.

False

According to your textbook, a majority of all people executed since 1977 have been black.

False

Defendants are entitled to present new evidence or testimony on appeal if that evidence or testimony could have been (but was not) presented at trial.

False

Generally, with presumptive sentencing, credit is not given for good time, but there is an opportunity for parole.

False

In Woodson v. North Carolina and Roberts v. Louisiana, the Supreme Court accepted mandatory statutes that automatically imposed death sentences for defined capital offenses.

False

In an appellate review, the appellate court compares the sentence in the case it is reviewing with penalties imposed in similar cases in the state.

False

Mandatory sentencing usually allows release on parole but does not allow credit for good time.

False

Mitigating factors are circumstances that make a crime worse than it otherwise would be

False

Studies show that judges do not follow the sentencing recommendations in presentence investigation reports (PSIs) most of the time, although they are required to do so.

False

Today's state legislatures are increasingly replacing determinate sentences with indeterminate ones.

False

Which of the following is one of the three landmark cases in which the Supreme Court set aside death sentences for the first time in its history?

Furman v. Georgia Jackson v. Georgia Branch v. Texas

Which of the following is one of the three landmark cases in which the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty by approving guided-discretion statutes?

Gregg v. Georgia Jurek v. Texas Proffitt v. Florida

In, _____________________1993, a death penalty case, the Supreme Court ruled that absent constitutional grounds, new evidence of innocence is no reason for a federal court to order a new state trial.

Herrera vs. Collins,

In which of the following situations can judges suspend the entire sentence of an offender?

If offender stays out of trouble Makes retribution, which is paying money or providing services to victims, their survivors or the community to make up for the injury inflicted Seeks medical treatment

Which of the following descriptions about a Supreme Court death penalty case is FALSE?

Is TRUE: -"Death is different" -As a punishment for the most heinous of crimes, the death penalty, or capital punishment, differs from all other criminal sanctions, not only in the nature of the penalty itself (the termination of life) but also in the legal procedures that lead to it

the legislature determines a sentence range for each crime, which is usually based on the seriousness of the crime and the criminal history of the offender.

Presumptive Sentencing

The term _______ is defined as the attempt to correct the personality and behavior of convicted offenders through educational, vocational, or therapeutic treatment and to return them to society as law-abiding citizens.

Rehab

Which of the following is an effort to do something for victims and their survivors—to return them, as much as possible, to their previous state and to make them "whole" again?

Restoration

According to your textbook, restorative justice has four goals. Which of the following is NOT one of those goals?

Restore the health of the community Repair the harm done meet victims needs require the offender to contribute to those repairs

From biblical times through the eighteenth century, _______ was the dominant justification for punishment.

Retribution

More than half of the 1,442 executions that have taken place in the United States since 1977 have occurred in just three states (as of December 9, 2016). Which of the following is NOT one of those three states?

Texas Virginia Oklahoma

Your textbook gives four examples of the claims that a convicted offender can make at allocation. Which of the following is NOT one of these claims?

The claims are: That he or she is not the one found guilty at trial That a pardon has been granted for the crime in question That he or she has gone insane since the verdict was rendered. Rules of due process prohibit the sentencing of convicted offenders if tbey do not understand why they are being punished . Punishment must be deferred until they are no longer insaane That she is pregnant. The sentence of a pregnant offender must be deferred or adjusted, especially in a capital case

A writ of habeas corpus is a court order directing a law officer to produce a prisoner in court to determine whether the prisoner is being legally detained or imprisoned.

True

Among Western industrialized nations, the United States is the only nation to employ capital punishment

True

Capital defendants have a dual system of collateral review.

True

Capital punishment is the ultimate means of incapacitation.

True

Death penalty support among the American public, at least according to the major opinion polls, remains relatively strong.

True

For most offenses, a majority of defendants are sentenced either on the day of conviction or the next day.

True

In 1977, the Supreme Court held that rape of an adult female and kidnapping, when the victim was not killed, do not warrant the death penalty.

True

Judges almost always impose the sentence agreed upon during plea negotiations, because if they did not, plea bargaining would not work.

True

Sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison or of not less than 5 years and not more than 25 years in prison are examples of determinate sentences.

True

The object of proportionality review is to reduce, as much as possible, disparity in death penalty sentencing.

True

The practical effect of the Furman decision was that the Supreme Court voided the death penalty laws of some 35 states.

True

The study of 41 New York state judges presented in your textbook illustrates the disparity in sentencing.

True

Which of the following is NOT true regarding crime victims' rights in the United States today?

Until recently, victims of crime and their survivors have generally been forgotten or neglected in criminal justice. They have not been important or respected participants in the adjudication process except, perhaps, as witnesses to their own or their loved ones' victimization. Beginning in the 1980's, however, because of increases scholarly attention to their plight and a fledgling victims' right movement, attempts have been made to change the situation. Today, in many jurisdictions, a greater effort is made to do something for victims and their survivors- to restore them, as much as possible, to their previous state and to make them "whole' again. In the early 1980's, only 4 states had laws that protected the basic rights of crime victims in the criminal justice systems. Now, every state has laws. In fact, there has been an explosion of activity in this area over the past 25 years. States have enacted more than 30,000 crime victim statues; at least 32 state victims' rights constitutional amendments have been passed; and the federal government has passed legislation providing basic rights and services to federal crime victims, such a victim assistance and victim compensation programs.

Before the Supreme Court's 1991 decision, ______________________ was considered irrelevant and potentially inflammatory and was not allowed

Victim-impact statements

In sentencing, what is "dead time"?

When jail time is not deducted from the sentence

For all intents and purposes, the death penalty today is used more than occasionally in only

a few non-Western countries and a few states in the American South.

Which of the following occurred between 1968 and 1972?

a series of lawsuits challenged various aspects of capital punishment as well as the constitutionality of the punishment itself An informal moratorium on executions was observed, pending the outcome to the litigation and no death row inmates were executed

Which of the following is NOT a judicial sentencing option?

any imaginable sentence

Presumptive sentences may be based on sentencing guidelines developed by sentencing commissions comprised of

both criminal justice professionals and private citizens.

According to Amnesty International, which of the following countries conducted the most executions in 2015?

china, Iran,saudi arabia, iraq, UNITED STATES, yemen (pg 335)

According to your textbook, one problem with restitution is that most offenders:

have neither the financial means nor the abilities to provide adequate restitution

A(n) __________ sentence has a fixed minimum and maximum term of incarceration rather than a set period.

indeterminate

In Lockett v. Ohio, 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that

judges and juries must consider any mitigating circumstances (329)

Your textbook discusses five major criticisms of determinate sentencing. Which of the following is NOT one of the criticisms?

longer prison sentences and overcrowded prisons Produces an unusually harsh prison system It merely shifts sentencing discretion from judges to legislatures and prosecutors (through plea bargaining) Jurisdictions that retain good time is that sentencing discretion, at least to some degree, actually shifts from legiislators and prosecutors to correctional personnel It's virtually impossible for legislatures or sentencing commissions to define in advance all of the factors that ought to be considered in determining a criminal sentence

State and federal legislative bodies enact __________ that specify appropriate punishments for each statutory offense or class of offense.

penal codes

Generally, a presentence investigation report (PSI) is prepared by a

probation officer, who conducts as thorough of a background check as possible on a defendant

Which of the following was the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Payne v. Tennessee in 1991?

that judges and juries may consider victim impact statements in their sentencing decisions

Identify a true statement about truth-in-sentencing laws

- First enacted in the state of Washington in 1984 Truth-in-sentencing laws require offenders to serve a substantial portion of their sentence, usually 85% of it Most target violent offenders and restrict/eliminate parole eligibility and good-time credits b/c of incentive grants authorized by Congress in 1994 to build/expand correctional facilities Nearly all states and District of Columbia have enacted truth-in-sentencing laws modeled after the federal government's

In the context of the philosophical rationales for the imposition of punishments, identify a true statement about deterrence.

- goal of achieving "greatest happiness for the greatest number, theorists believed the only legitimate purpose for punishment is prevention/deterrence of crime. -Special/Specific Deterrence: Prevention of individuals from committing crimes again by punishing them. -General Deterrence: Prevention of people in general from engaging in crime by punishing specific individuals and making examples of them. -Problem with general deterrence as a rationale for punishment is even though it makes intuitive sense, social science is unable to measure the effects. -Only people who have not been deterred come to the attention of social scientists and criminal justice personnel.

Which of the following is a right granted to crime victims in at least some jurisdictions?

-The right to notice of victims' rights -The right to be treated with fairness, dignity, and respect -The right to be informed, present, and heard at important criminal justice proceedings -The right to confer with the prosecutor -The right to of sexual assault victims to be paid for forensic exams -The right to HIV testing of sex offenders and notification of the results -The right to reasonable protection from the accused -The right to privacy (including a prohibition against compelling testimony about personal information in open court, exclusion or limited disclosure of victim identifying information in criminal justice records, and protection from release of addresses and phone numbers provided for notice purposes) -The right to a speedy resolution of the case -The right to a prompt return of the victim's property -The right to notice of the offender's release -The right to restitution from the offenders or compensation from the state

Which of the following is a problem with victims' rights laws and their implementation?

-Victims' right vary greatly among states and at the federal level -Even in states that have constitutional rights for victims, those rights are often ignored, suffer from arbitrary implementation, or depend on the whims of criminal justice officials -Victims from other cultures and those with disabilities frequently are not informed of their rights or given the opportunity to participate in criminal and juvenile justice proceedings. There are also gaps in the law -Victims' rights in tribal, military, and administrative proceedings are generally nonexistent

For which of the following uses do laws specify that restitution may be court ordered?

-medical expenses -lost wages -counseling expenses -lost or damaged property -funeral expenses -other direct out-of pocket expenses

In more than _________ of all states, courts are required by law to order restitution unless there are compelling or extraordinary circumstances.

1/3

What is believed to be the longest prison sentence in the United States?

10,000 year sentence imposed on Dudley Wayne Kyzer,40, on December 4, 1981, in Tuscaloosa, AL, for triple murder committed in 1976

As of January 5, 2017, how many jurisdictions in the United States have capital punishment statutes?

34

Nationally, between 1973 and 2013,_________ of initial convictions or sentences in capital cases were overturned on appeal.

36%

A 2016 Gallup poll found that _______of the American public does not believe that the death penalty is applied fairly

41%

According to your textbook, since 1977, ______ of the victims of those who have been executed were white.

56%

According to a Gallup poll, _________of Americans favored the death penalty at the end of 2016

63%

Between 1977 and 2016, _______of all executions in the United States occurred in the South.

80%

Nearly ________ of state trial court decisions are affirmed on appeal.

80%

Truth-in-sentencing laws require offenders to serve a substantial portion of their prison sentence, usually _______of it.

85%