Criminal Law Chapter 2

Front 1

Which state led the "3 Strikes and Your Out" campain

Back 1

California

Front 2

Innocense Project

Back 2

uses DNA testing to determine someone's guilt or innocense

Front 3

Vernon v. Georgia (1972)

Back 3

*due process
-How were people being executed? What was the procedure?
-There was a lack of "due process", so U.S. Supreme Court wanted state legislatures to go back and reflect on their procedures and laws
-Had to answer questions like:
?What crime is worthy of death?
?How educated is the jury?

Front 4

Facts about a Death Penalty Case

Back 4

1) Trial- conviction
2) 2nd trial- life in prison or death?

*in the past: there was no mitigation case... you were sentenced to death (no questions asked)
*Today: you have two lawyers. A private and a mitigation lawyer

Front 5

Coker v. Georgia (1977)

Back 5

-Coker is mentally ill.
-He committed crimes of rape, murder, kidnapping, and aggravated assault.
-He later escaped from the Ware Correctional Institution and rapes a 16 year old girl.
-The case: Repeated offenses under Georgia are subject to the death penalty
-Outcome: Death is considered disporportionate (punishment wise) to rape.

Front 6

Ewing v. California

Back 6

*3 strikes and your out clause: 25 years to life in prison
-Ewing had a large history of bugglary and theft
-Ewing's final offense was stealing from a golf course
-The Case: compared 3 seperate cases and tried to determine if his sentencing was fair or not.

Front 7

cruel and unusual punishment

Back 7

sometimes seen as a vague and unspecified concept of the Eighth Amendement, a guarantee by the constitution that punishment shall not be excessive

Front 8

equal protection of the laws

Back 8

Fourteenth Amendment clause guaranteeing all citzens, regardless of race, color, gender, class, origin, or religion, equal protection under the law

Front 9

ex post facto laws

Back 9

Laws that retroactively make an act illegal or increase the penalty for an existing crime, held to be unconstitutional

Front 10

fair notice

Back 10

-An ordinance or statute that clearly defines what conduct is prohibited or required
-however: "ignorance of the law is no excuse"

Front 11

just deserts/ proportionality

Back 11

the legal principle that a person may use only that amount of force that is reasonably necessary to repel his or her attacker

Front 12

the legality principle

Back 12

A constitutional limitation on state or federal power to enforce criminal laws

Front 13

offensive conduct

Back 13

Behavior that has a tendency to provoke others to acts of violence or to in turn disturb the peace

Front 14

offensive speech

Back 14

Speech that is not protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution

Front 15

overbreadth doctrine

Back 15

Doctrine that allows invalidation of laws that punish people for engaging in constitutionally protected behaviors, such as expression of speech and religious rituals... (First Amendment rights)

Front 16

right of association

Back 16

As protected by the First Amendment, the right of association with others without prejudice is guarenteed

Front 17

right of privacy

Back 17

The individual's right to decide in what way they will share or withhold beliefs or behaviors

Front 18

stare decisis

Back 18

Legal doctrine that a court will refer to precedent cases when determining the ourcome of a present case

Front 19

substantive due process

Back 19

A legal principle that deems that not only is one's due process guarenteed, but their substantial rights are also protected in a legal process

Front 20

torts

Back 20

Cases involving personal injury and damage to or loss of property handled as civil action

Front 21

vagueness

Back 21

A law that is not clearly defined

Front 22

concurrent sentencing

Back 22

10 years in Fed prison
5 years in State prison
* Total= 10 years in prison

Front 23

seperate sentencing

Back 23

10 years in Fed prison
5 years in State prison
*Total= 15 years in prison

Front 24

Is it considered double jeopardy to prosecute in both State and Fed court?

Back 24

No.

Front 25

Statistics of Felony Cases in Federal and State Court

Back 25

-State: 94 percent
-Federal: 6 percent

-federal prosecutions may involve offenses that are especially important to national policies

Front 26

What is a statute?

Back 26

law enacted by a legislative body

Front 27

Reason why "ignorance of the law is no excuse"

Back 27

It rewards people who are not diligent enough to take necessary steps to find out what the law is

Front 28

vagueness doctine

Back 28

-requires that all people have a fair opportunity to know what the law is
-it does not protect people who actually do not know about a law that is fairly "knowable"

Front 29

Conflict between ex post facto laws and the legality principle

Back 29

a law passed "after the fact" of an individual's commiting of an act, or raising the punishment for it, could not possibly provide fair notice that the person's conduct would be in violation of the same law or that it would be subject to greater punishment

Front 30

1st Amendment Rights

Back 30

FREEDOM OF:
1) speech
2) religion
3) assembly
4) petition
5) press

Front 31

Statutes challenged on grounds of vagueness are frequently charged as being

Back 31

unconstitutionally broad

Front 32

14th Amendment Right

Back 32

no State shall "deny any person wihtin its jurisdiction the equal protection of laws"

Front 33

The three major constituational limitations on the gocernment's power to define conduct as a crime

Back 33

1) Substantive due process
2) The First Amendment
3) Equal Protection of Law