The Due Process model has added many procedures to the criminal justice system that are designed to ensure fairness in criminal proceedings. This week’s discussion will focus on fairness in sentencing.
When deciding on an appropriate sentence, a judge must consider many factors, including the law, the rights of the victim, and any special circumstances that might influence the final sentence.
- Analyze whether judges should be required to sentence all offenders equally for the same crime. For instance, should a homeless person receive the same sentence for shoplifting as a person with assets and income?
- What role, if any, does the victim play in the sentencing process? Analyze whether the impact of the crime on the victim should be a consideration when determining his or her sentence.
- Consider “habitual offender” laws which increase the punishment for certain repeated felonies. Analyze whether it is fair to punish an offender’s third crime more harshly than the first, if the crimes were the same. Could it be considered double-jeopardy to add to today’s sentence because of a previous crime—which has already been punished?
- Consider the disparity between the sentence for possessing or selling crack cocaine and the sentence for possessing or selling the powder form of cocaine. At the federal level, crack is punished far more harshly than powder. Analyze the arguments for and against this disparity.
Answer preview
First, the considerations as expressed by Bagaric and Gopalan (2015), are that each crime category needs to have a standard penalty that distinguishes it from other crimes. The harm that a crime set on the flourishing of a victim need to maintain a primary consideration. For the case of different offenders for the same offense, there is a need to consider the extent to which an offender would be held accountable for the act. To hold an offender accountable for a crime the intent, motive, and circumstances that prevail around a crime can be used not to justify the offense but to determine the significance of a sentence. Another lens to be used is the consideration of the need to harmonize the US justice system to reduce the burden of incarceration to the citizens.
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