Chapter 12

Chapter 12- Trials and Sentencing
This chapter focuses on, (1) what happens at trial, (2) how do judges decided on a sentence, (3) how do sentencing options differ, (3) how does the Eight Amendment restrict sentencing, and lastly (4) what is the answer on the death penalty debate.
1. What happens at trial?- jury selection, witness testimony and evidence, defense strategies, arguments and outcomes, retribution and incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation, probation, restitution and incarceration, and the presentence report. As Professor McNinch stated, “in criminal justice, the process is the punishment.”
2. How do sentencing options differ? Judges may choose sentences within a range established by law.
3. Intermediate sentencing- empowers the judges to set a maximum sentence (up to the limit set by the legislature) and sometimes a minimum sentence for the offender to serve in prison.
4. Determinate sentencing- permits the judges to impose fixed sentences that cannot be altered by a parole board
5. Sentencing guidelines- a middle ground between indeterminate and determinate sentencing. The guidelines are developed by commissions that examine averages of past sentences for various combinations of offenders and offenses.
6. The Eight Amendment bars excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment.
7. Cruel and unusual punishment – a portion in the Eight Amendment prohibiting criminal penalties that violate “evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.”
8. The Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment except in the cases of murder.
9. Supporters of the death penalty believe that it is a necessary punishment as retribution for the life unlawfully taken.
10. Analysis of DNA evidence has proved that suspects are convicted in error more often than was previously imagined.