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Chapter 19: Sentencing And Punishment 1. In Ford v. Wainwright, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits the execution of a prisoner who has become legally insane. Answer: True 2. According to the authors of this text, academicians who study capital punishment are nearly unanimous in believing that the death penalty is a general deterrent to murder. Answer: False 3. According to the authors, the most common form of criminal punishment is the monetary fine. Answer: True 4. Under no circumstances may a court limit the right of an offender to associate freely with other persons as a condition of probation. Answer: False 5. “Community control” is another term for community service. Answer: False 6. Every criminal jurisdiction requires that adult offenders be sentenced in open court. Answer: True 7. Under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, capital punishment is restricted to convictions for bank robberies resulting in death. Answer: False 8. A defendant convicted of multiple crimes must be given separate sentences for each offense. Answer: True 9. The trend in sentencing today is toward indeterminate sentences for adult offenders. Answer: False 10. In 1997 the U.S. Supreme Court held that a state law that provided procedures for the civil commitment of persons who, because of mental abnormality or personality disorder, are likely to engage in “predatory acts of sexual violence” did not constitute criminal punishment. Answer: True 11. Prison officials cannot restrict the visitation privileges of an inmate who is receiving contraband smuggled into the prison by visitors. Their only recourse is to search visitors. Answer: False 12. The Supreme Court has held that prison officials may deny inmates access to the courts once they have exhausted their appeals. Answer: False 13. As currently interpreted, the Eighth Amendment requires that prisoners must be provided with reasonably adequate food, clothing, shelter, medical care, sanitation, and a reasonable assurance of their personal safety. Answer: True 14. Courts have generally upheld restrictions on religious exercises by inmates that disrupt the prison routine. Answer: True 15. The Supreme Court has said that the Eighth Amendment must draw its meaning from evolving standards of decency. Answer: True 16. Restitution is the conditional release of a convicted offender under the supervision of a probation officer. Answer: False 17. The Supreme Court has held that the Eighth Amendment bars the execution of a person who was under the age of legal majority at the time of the crime. Answer: True 18. Courts have held that conditions of probation may infringe a probationer’s constitutional rights, including the First Amendment rights of free speech and association. Answer: True 19. In 2010 the Supreme Court struck down the federal statute that allows for civil commitment of violent sexual predators that have completed their prison sentences. Answer: False 20. In Furman v. Georgia (1972) the Supreme Court declared Georgia’s death penalty law unconstitutional. Answer: True 21. Under a scheme of ___________ sentencing, judges are free to impose particular sentences within ranges of minimum and maximum penalties prescribed by law. a. indeterminate b. indefinite c. mandatory d. determinate Answer: B 22. In an effort to incapacitate habitual criminals, many states have laws requiring _______ for persons repeatedly found guilty of felonies. a. the death penalty b. mandatory enhanced penalties c. psychiatric evaluation d. community control Answer: B 23. “When one man strikes another and kills him, he shall be put to death.... When one man injures and disfigures his fellow-countryman, it shall be done to him as he has done, eye for eye, tooth for tooth....” This is the Biblical statement of the doctrine of _________. a. restitution b. incapacitation c. deterrence d. retribution Answer: D 24. Which of the following statements concerning the federal Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 is INCORRECT? a. To accomplish the stated purpose of the new Act, the United States Sentencing Commission was created to promulgate sentencing guidelines. b. The sentencing guidelines reduce the discretion of federal judges in imposing sentences. c. A sentencing judge may depart from the prescribed guidelines sentence based on defendant’s education, sex, family and community ties, and employment history. d. Sentences prescribed by the new federal guidelines are not absolute. Answer: C 25. The U.S. Supreme Court declared the Georgia death penalty statute unconstitutional in ___________. a. Furman v. Georgia (1972) b. Jenkins v. Georgia (1974) c. Gregg v. Georgia (1976) d. Waller v. Georgia (1984) Answer: A 26. Which of the following elements are typically addressed in a presentence report? a. the defendant’s family background b. the defendant’s employment history c. the defendant’s criminal record, if any d. All of the above Answer: D 27. Indeterminate sentencing is linked conceptually to the penological goal of ________. a. deterrence b. rehabilitation c. incapacitation d. retribution Answer: B 28. Which of the following approaches to sentencing represents an effort to reduce sentencing disparities? a. consecutive sentencing b. indeterminate sentencing c. sentencing guidelines d. None of these Answer: C 29. The sentencing procedure followed in a capital case where the guilt phase is separated from the penalty phase is often referred to as a (an) ___________. a. bifurcated trial b. disciplinary hearing c. evidentiary hearing d. None of these Answer: A 30. Which of the following elements of due process of law must be provided to a prisoner before “good time credit” can be revoked? a. notice of the action b. an administrative hearing c. the right to be represented by counsel d. Both notice of the action and an administrative hearing. Answer: D 31. Which one of the following statements is INCORRECT? a. Courts of law tend to focus on the philosophical, theoretical, and empirical questions that surround the various forms of criminal punishment. b. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision in United States v. Booker has now effectively relegated the federal sentencing guidelines to an advisory status. c. When a trial court sentences a defendant to incarceration, it generally allows the defendant credit against any term of incarceration for all time spent in custody as a result of the charge for which sentence is imposed. d. Courts tend to scrutinize probation conditions that restrict such fundamental rights as procreation. Answer: A 32. In 1993 the Supreme Court held that forfeiture of property constitutes significant punishment and is therefore subject to constitutional limitations under the _____ Amendment. a. First b. Second c. Eighth d. Tenth Answer: C 33. The evidentiary standard that courts apply when considering whether to revoke probation is that the ___________. a. alleged violation is proven beyond a reasonable doubt b. court is reasonably satisfied as to the probationer’s violation c. alleged violation is established by a preponderance of the evidence d. alleged violation is established by clear and convincing evidence Answer: B 34. A judge who imposes a sentence within a range of prescribed minimum and maximum penalties with no possibility of early release from prison has imposed a (an) _______ sentence. a. definite b. indefinite c. determinate d. indeterminate Answer: C 35. Which ONE of the following statements concerning community control is INCORRECT? a. Community control is a new term for an ancient practice known as house arrest. b. Community control often is imposed as a condition of probation and requires an offender to perform a specified number of hours of service to the community. c. To be effective, community control requires intensive surveillance and supervision. d. When community control is imposed, an offender is generally allowed to leave home only for employment, essential purposes, and approved community service activities. Answer: B 36. Before prison officials are allowed to remove good-time credit that a prisoner has earned, the inmate must be afforded all the following rights except: a. written notice of the disciplinary hearing. b. the right to an administrative hearing with a written record of the proceedings. c. the right to have counsel present at the administrative hearing. d. the right to produce evidence on his or her behalf. Answer: C 37. Today the chief focus of criminal punishment appears to be to prevent offenders from committing further criminal acts, also termed ___________. a. incapacitation b. rehabilitation c. restitution d. community service Answer: A 38. In sentencing a defendant it is impermissible for a federal district court to depart from a sentence prescribed by the sentencing guidelines on the basis of ___________. a. the defendant’s race, religion, or national origin b. the defendant’s sex c. the defendant’s socioeconomic status d. any of these factors Answer: D 39. Which ONE of the following statements does NOT correctly reflect the view of the Supreme Court concerning the rights of prisoners? a. A prison inmate retains those First Amendment rights “that are not inconsistent with his status as a prisoner or with the legitimate penological objectives of the corrections system.” b. Prisons regulations cannot infringe the inmates’ free assembly and association. c. Prisoners must be granted the right of access to the courts. d. Prison officials have broad latitude to restrict visitation privileges if there is reason to believe that an inmate is receiving contraband being smuggled into the prison by visitors. Answer: B 40. Despite the trend away from indeterminate sentencing, a number of state laws retain indeterminate sentencing for ___________. a. habitual offenders b. probationers whose probation has been revoked c. youthful offenders d. persons who have failed to complete their prescribed community service Answer: C 41. Despite the Supreme Court’s decision in Payne v. Tennessee, a trial court may still find that a particular ___________ would inject too much emotionalism into the jury’s deliberations on the issue of whether an offender should sentenced to death. a. victim impact statement b. closing statement c. aggravating factor d. jury instruction Answer: A 42. The ___________ require(s) a two-step process before probation can be revoked. a. Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution b. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure c. The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 d. Supreme Court’s decision in Gagnon v. Scarpelli (1973) Answer: B 43. Which one of the following statements regarding the Uniform Victims of Crime Act is NOT correct? a. Prosecutors or court personnel must notify victims of their rights, as well as the times of any court proceedings involving the person or persons who allegedly victimized them. b. A crime victim has a right to be present at any court proceeding that the defendant has a right to attend. c. If the defendant is convicted, the victim has the right to make an impact statement during the sentencing hearing and assert an opinion as to the proper sentence. d. Crime victims have the right to veto any plea bargain involving the person or persons who allegedly victimized them. Answer: D 44. The Federal Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 dramatically toughened federal sentencing policies by ___________. a. abolishing probation b. ending prison visitation c. prohibiting judges from imposing suspended sentences d. all of these Answer: C 45. In states that have adopted restitution laws, courts have held that ___________. a. restitution is necessarily incompatible with incarceration b. restitution may not be ordered for damages caused by the defendant during a criminal episode, unless the loss is directly related to a specific conviction c. a defendant may not be ordered to pay restitution to a party other than his or her victim d. None of these Answer: D 46. Today, the most common method of carrying out an execution in the U.S. is ___________. Answer: lethal injection 47. The defendant’s opportunity to make a statement on his or her own behalf before a judge pronounces sentence is often referred to as the ___________. Answer: right of allocution 48. A judge who grants ___________ in lieu of a prison sentence may impose conditions that limit a probationer’s First Amendment rights provided the conditions bear a reasonable relationship to the probationer’s rehabilitation. Answer: probation 49. Although a civil rather than a criminal proceeding, the Supreme Court has ruled that forfeiture proceedings are subject to constitutional limitations under the ___________.Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Answer: Eighth 50. Today in state prisons discipline is largely accomplished by granting and removing ___________ credit, which is early release for good behavior. Answer: good-time 51. A requirement to pay a sum of money to a victim by a defendant who caused injuries to the victim is called ___________. Answer: restitution 52. Recognizing that restitution is not practical in many criminal cases, several states have enacted laws to make victims eligible for ___________ when a crime has resulted in injuries and is promptly reported. Answer: compensation 53. During the 19th century reformers introduced the concept of the penitentiary, an idea that gave rise to the notion that through ___________ the criminal justice system could reform criminals. Answer: rehabilitation 54. In Ford v. Wainwright (1986) the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment bars execution of a prisoner who is ___________. Answer: insane 55. In Roper v. Simmons (2005) the U.S. Supreme Court forbade the execution of anyone who was under the age of ___________ at the time of their offense. Answer: eighteen 56. The ___________ Act provides for notification to victims of court proceedings involving the persons who allegedly victimized them, and the right to be present at any court proceeding that the defendant has the right to attend. Answer: Uniform Victims of Crime 57. If defendant is convicted of a felony, the victim has the right to make an __________ during the sentencing hearing and assert an opinion as to the proper sentence Answer: impact statement 58. In the early ________ century reformers of criminal justice introduced the penitentiary. Answer: 19th 59. Courts increasingly impose community control, also called ___________, where an offender is allowed to leave home only for employment and approved community service activities. Answer: house arrest 60. Colonial America followed the English common law, which prescribed _________ for most felonies and corporal punishment for misdemeanors. Answer: the death penalty 61. Historically legislatures allowed judges to sentence criminals to imprisonment until corrections officials decided they were sufficiently rehabilitated. This became known as __________ sentencing. Answer: indeterminate 62. The ___________ movement seeks to close the gap between the sentences imposed by courts and time actually served in prison. Answer: truth in sentencing 63. To eliminate the disparities in sentencing, Congress and a number of states adopted _________. Answer: sentencing guidelines 64. Early forms of criminal punishment were based on the concept of ___________, the idea that a criminal should get his just deserts. Answer: retribution 65. In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s protocol for ________, which is used by most states that employ the death penalty. Answer: lethal injection In the summer after your first year at law school, you begin an internship at a Texas law firm called “Execution Stoppers.” As you discerned from their name, they specialize in keeping accused criminals off death row. On your first day at the firm, they ask you to write a memo summarizing their three easiest cases of the month. Case 1 involves a 17 year-old boy who is accused of felony murder, a capital offense in that state. Case 2 involves an accused murdered whose IQ score is 62. Case 3 involves an individual who raped and murdered a child. Answer the following questions about the report you will craft to summarize these cases. 66. In order to prevent the 17 year-old boy from being executed, “Execution Stoppers” merely needs to mention one Supreme Court precedent. Based on your first year of training in law school, you recognize that this 2005 case is called: a. Atkins v. Virginia b. Miranda v. Arizona c. Ewing v. California d. Roper v. Simmons Answer: D 67. Assume that the state of Texas has established a standard that defines mental retardation as having an IQ score below 70. Based on this information, the client in Case 2: a. can be executed only if his crime evinces certain “aggravating factors” b. cannot be executed, as per Supreme Court precedent c. can be executed as long as he is over the age of 18 d. can be executed if his crime involved at least one concurrent felony Answer: B 68. For the client in Case 3, the rape of a child is likely to be considered which of the following: a. a mitigating factor for the jury to consider in the capital sentencing phase b. an aggravating factor for the jury to consider in the capital sentencing phase c. an aggravating factor for the judge to consider in the capital sentencing phase d. inadmissible information that a jury will never hear Answer: B 69. As per the Supreme Court’s rulings in Kennedy v. Louisiana and Comstock v. United States had the client in Case 3 committed a child rape, but no murder, he would: a. still be eligible for the death penalty b. would only be eligible for the death penalty if under the age of 18 c. would not be eligible for the death penalty, but could be a candidate for lengthy civil confinement even after his sentence is completed d. would be eligible for the death penalty only if a judge found probable cause for its implementation Answer: C You have graduated from law school, passed the bar, and opened your own law firm. The first phone call to your office comes from a mother begging you to handle an appeal for her son, who has been sentenced to life in prison under a “three strikes and you’re out law.” This law mandates a life sentence for any three criminal convictions. Your state has no death penalty, so this is the worst sentence that he can receive. You agree to hear the case and the mother says she will be there in ten minutes to hand you the file. You decide to use the ten minutes before her arrival researching Supreme Court case law in “three strikes” cases; in the process you envision possibilities of what this client might have done. 70. You first wonder if the client may have committed three non-violent crimes. Perhaps his final act was something as simple as writing a bad check for $100. If that were the case, then: a. You really have little chance of winning an appeal, based on Supreme Court precedent from Ewing v. California, where an individual received life in prison for a similar offense. b. You can build a strong appeal around Solem v. Helm, where the Supreme Court vacated a life sentence for similar activity. c. You have no relevant Supreme Court case law to turn to, and should tell the mother that there is nothing that can be done d. You could use the Supreme Court’s ruling in Roper v. Simmons to set him free, as long as he is over the age of 18 Answer: B 71. You next wonder if the client has committed three violent felonies. Perhaps his last crime involved an armed robbery and kidnapping. If this were the case: a. You have no relevant Supreme Court case law to turn to, and should tell the mother that there is nothing that can be done. b. You really have little chance of winning an appeal, based on Supreme Court precedent from Ewing v. California, where an individual received life in prison when that was deemed “proportional” to his offenses c. You can build a strong appeal around Solem v. Helm, where the Supreme Court vacated a life sentence for similar activity d. You could use the Supreme Court’s ruling in Atkins v. Virginia to set him free, as long as he is deemed competent to stand trial Answer: B 72. Let’s say your client turned out be a juvenile and this life sentence includes no chance for parole and was imposed as a “mandatory sentence.” a. Your client’s age is irrelevant to the matter at hand because he is not facing the death penalty. b. There is Supreme Court case law that could help you formulate a successful appeal on behalf of minors who receive a life sentence without possibility for parole. c. Because your client is under the age of 18, the most time he cannot be incarcerated past his 18th birthday. d. Because your client is under the age of 18, he cannot receive more than 20 years in prison for any crime, according to Supreme Court precedent. Answer: B You are defending a client accused of committing a hate crime. Apparently, he got into a bar fight and uttered a racial slur during the altercation. The man he punched was in fact an African-American. Sadly, the man your client punched ended up dying from head injuries caused by the punch. Assume that your client is found guilty of manslaughter, and answer the following questions about what happens next. 73. The trial judge wishes to impose a “hate crime” penalty enhancement to your client’s sentence based on his utterance of a racial slur during the commission of the crime. This addition would move the sentence beyond the statutory-defined maximum sentence. Which of the following is true? a. Your best avenue of appeal is to assert a First Amendment right to utter racial slurs. b. A potentially successful avenue of appeal is to cite Apprendi v. New Jersey, where the Supreme Court suggested that a sentence enhancement for commission of a “hate crime” can only occur if a jury—not a judge—finds that essential element. c. You have little recourse to protest, because Apprendi v. New Jersey says that a judge can impose a “hate crime” enhancement based on his or her own finding of probable cause—and the racial slur in this case provides that. d. You would have successful grounds for appeal only if this occurred in a federal court. Answer: B 74. Let’s say the crime took place on a Native American reservation and we find ourselves in federal court instead of state court. According to the decision in Booker v. United States, which of the following are criteria that the judge can properly consider in determining a sentence? a. the defendant’s criminal history b. whether the judge feels that a hate crime occurred c. whether the judge feels that this crime meets certain aggravating factors d. none of these can be considered Answer: A 75. Let’s say that as a result of evidence showing premeditation your client was found guilty of first-degree murder instead of manslaughter. This happens in state court in a state where the death penalty could apply. Which of the following is true? a. A judge could sentence your client to the death penalty if this activity took place on a Native American reservation in your state. b. A jury would be deliberating guilt and innocence at the same time as they were debating which punishment to dole out. c. The death penalty could only be imposed via a bifurcated trial in which the sentencing phase involves consideration of aggravating and mitigating factors. d. There is no chance of your client getting the death penalty, as it has been banned nationwide since the Supreme Court’s 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia. Answer: C Test Bank for Criminal Law and Procedure John M. Scheb 9781285070117, 9781285690292, 9781285546131
