Exam 14: Legal Liabilities of Law Enforcement Officers

The rule that an alleged error at trial may be raised on appeal even if the error was not objected to at trial so long as it was a clear error affecting substantial rights and causing manifest injustice is called __________.

An appeal from a trial court's judgment of conviction:

Not every state has created a statutory right to appeal a criminal conviction.

Research indicates that mandatory minimum sentences actually introduce disparity in sentencing.

In the case Lockyer v. Andrade (2003), the Supreme Court ruled that it was a violation of the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual punishment clause to sentence Andrade to 25 years to life imprisonment for petty theft under the state's three strikes law.

Parole boards and prison administrators determine the exact release date within sentences prescribed by judges and legislatures in the __________.

_________ demands that government justify the detention and incarceration of prisoners.

In the U.S. indeterminate sentencing was the dominant form of sentencing until the 1970s, when several forces came together to oppose it. These forces included: I. reformers concerned about harsh, fixed sentences. II. public discontent with rehabilitation. III. individual rights advocates who opposed the informal discretionary power of Judges. IV. increased demands for formal accountability throughout the criminal justice system.

By the early 1970s, there was a consensus among law enforcement officials, prisoners' groups, reformers, and bureaucrats that indeterminate sentencing should be replaced with a more determinate sentencing system.

The ______________ of 1996 substantially amends and narrows the federal habeas corpus rights of both state and federal prisoners.

The writ of habeas corpus:

Throughout American history, which of the following institutions have exercised sentencing power? I. police II. legislatures III. the judiciary IV. administrative agencies

A majority of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices agree that the principle of proportionality applies to:

Compare and contrast sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences. Also identify three aims of both sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum sentences.

Throughout history, fixed sentences have totally dominated criminal sentencing.

Mandatory minimum sentences: I. require offenders convicted of the offense to serve a non-discretionary amount of prison time. II. allow judges to sentence offenders to more than the minimum. III. promise "if you do the crime, you will do the time." IV. are very old.

Sentencing guidelines are a response to demands from both experts and the public for: I. uniformity in sentencing. II. certainty and truth in sentencing. III. increased rehabilitation of offenders. IV. retribution, deterrence and incapacitation.

Which of the below was not among the reasons for repeal of mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses in the early 1970s?

The aims of criminal punishment that mandatory minimum sentences attempt to satisfy include: I. retribution. II. rehabilitation. III. incapacitation. IV. deterrence.

The Warren Court: