Legal Studies 131 - Final Exam

Good Time

A reduction of an imprisoned person’s sentence, at the discretion of the prison administrator, for good behavior or participation in vocational, educational, or treatment programs.

Earned Time

Reduction in a prisoner’s sentence as a reward for participation in educational or other rehabilitation programs and for work assignments such as disaster relief and conservation projects.

Truth in Sentencing

Laws that require lawbreakers to serve a substantial proportion (usually 85% for violent crimes) of their prison sentence before being released on parole.

Probation

A sentence that the offender is allowed to serve under supervision in the community.

Shock Probation (split probation)

A sentence in which the offender is released after a short incarceration and resentenced to probation.

Furman v. Georgia (1972)

The death penalty, as administered, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. A majority of justices found that the procedures used to impose death sentences were arbitrary and unfair.

Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

Death penalty laws are constitutional if they require the judge and jury to consider certain mitigating and aggravating circumstances in deciding which convicted murderers should be sentenced to death. Proceedings must also be divided into a trial phase and a punishment phase, and there must be opportunities for appeal (bifurcated proceedings).

Atkins v. Virginia (2002)

Execution of developmentally disabled offenders is unconstitutional.

Roper v. Simmons (2005)

Execution of offenders for crimes committed while under the age 18 is unconstitutional. Court said that juveniles were less culpable.

In re Gault (1967)

Juveniles have the right to counsel, to confront and examine accusers, and to have adequate notice of charges when confinement is a possible punishment. Juveniles have a right to due process. A delinquency “hearing must measure up to the essentials of due process and fair treatment.” Goes to the “adultification” theory.

In re Winship (1970)

The standard of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” applies to juvenile delinquency proceedings.

Miller v. Alabama (2012)

Forbade the imposition of mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles convicted of homicide offenses. The Court allowed discretionary life-without-parole sentences for those offenders when courts “consider the mitigating qualities of youth.”

Graham v. Alabama

For juveniles, life sentences without possibility of parole were unconstitutionally disproportionate for non-homicide offenses. Juvenile offenders cannot be sentences to life imprisonment without (“some realistic opportunity for”) parole for non-homicide offenses.

Jones v. Mississippi

Youth as a factor must be considered “just as a capital sentencer must have discretion to consider other mitigating factors before imposing a death sentence.” Youth has become a procedural issue now.

Adjudication

The process of determining whether or not a defendant is guilty. The trial stage of the juvenile justice process. If the child has not admitted to the charges and the case has not been transferred to the adult court, a hearing is held to determine the facts in the case, and, if appropriate, to label the juvenile as a “delinquent.”

McKeiver v. Pennsylvania (1971)

Juveniles do not have a constitutional right to a trial by jury.

Waiver

Procedure by which the juvenile court waives its jurisdiction and transfers a juvenile case to the adult criminal court.

Recidivism

A return to criminal behavior.