¶ … precedent-setting court cases support response. •What factors affect sentencing? Describe sides debate sentencing guidelines. Evaluate factors affect sentencing compare factors racial, gender, socioeconomic lines.
It is a rather well-known fact that there have been numerous cases in the history of the judicial system in which sentencing was considered to be unfair and dependent of racial, gender, or social factors. The role of the Sentencing guidelines was precisely to avoid arbitrary sentencing. However, there are strong debates concerning the applicability of these guidelines and abuses that surround them.
In general terms, the two elements that affect and determine sentencing are the level of the offence and the criminal history of the defendant (United States Sentencing Commission, 2012) These two elements interact and according to the Sentencing table determine the months to be spent in jail to serve a legal punishment. However, as legal practice improved and more and more cases of abuses surfaced, the Sentencing Guidelines were viewed as denying a defendant the right to a trial by a jury. In this sense, "In a two-part decision on January 12, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the current federal sentencing system violates a defendant's...
Under the ruling, federal judges will have the discretion to decide whether to impose a sentence either harsher or more lenient than the guidelines' ranges, but may be subject to reversal if an appeals court determines the sentence to be "unreasonable." (The Leadership Conference, 2005) Therefore, the approval that the Guidelines could be set aside in a judge's decision over a sentencing would somewhat make the Guidelines to have mere informatory purposes.
In addition, if the sentencing can be done at the federal level, it automatically implies that the rules of one state can either benefit or harm a defendant, depending on the state under which he or she is trialed and sentenced. From this point-of-view, the place of the trial is in this sense extremely important to consider the place of the trial. This is also due to the fact that certain states view more favorably specific offenses or criminal conduct.
The arbitrary conduct of judges in relation to the Sentencing Guidelines has led to severe discriminatory sentencing which takes into account racial, gender, or social conditions. These are visible in several…
Supreme Court Case The Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson was an extremely important one, and one which set a significant precedent in the United States that would not be overturned until the Brown v. Board of Education decision in the middle of the 20th century. The former case set the precedent for what was known as the separate but equal doctrine. The principle question considered in this case was
Supreme Court Case Supreme Court Decision in Re Waterman, 910 2D (N.H. 2006) The Case The case addressed in this section of the report is that of Supreme Court case In Re Waterman, 910 A.2d 1175 (N.H. 2006). In this case, Tracy Waterman, working as a trooper for the New Hampshire State Policy was informed on August 29, 3003 that Vicky Lemere, the wife of one of Waterman's fellow troopers, informed Lieutenant Nedeau,
While the decision has hung over states as one national standard, it infringes the essential principles of federalism and separation of powers that are rooted in the country's constitutional system (Silversten, 2011). During the time that the Supreme Court made this ruling, the state of Georgia basically had the same position on punishment for the crime of rape with many states. Actually, very few states permitted the executions or enforcement
Supreme Court cases (Muller V. Oregon) women's right Why it was an issue of national importance The Muller v. Oregon case was among the most crucial Supreme Court cases in the U.S. during the progressive regime. The case held an Oregon law that limited the working days for female wage employees to a maximum of ten hours. In 1908, this case created a precedent to expand access of national activities into the
7. Sester v. United States - Docket No., 10-7387 -- The question is whether a district court has authority to order a federal sentence to run consecutive to an anticipated, but not-yet-imposed, state sentence ? 8. Williams v. Illinois - Docket No., 10-8505 -- The question is whether a state rule of evidence allowing an expert witness to testify about the results of DNA testing performed by non-testifying analysts, where the
long-term impact of Florence v. The Board of Chosen Freeholders. This will be accomplished by: studying the parties involved, discussing the facts of the case, identifying the constitutional issues, examining the decision in terms of the vote, the opinion of the court, the dissenting views and the significance of the case. Once this takes place, is when we can provide specific insights that will illustrate how this will affect