POLS 4720 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Paul G. Cassell, Mandatory Sentencing
19 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
A person who commits first degree murder deserves a certain punishment. If two people commit first degree murder, the should get a similar sentence because the punishment is deserved for their actions. Utilitarian: based on what benefits society, rehabilitation, specific deterrence, general deterrence. Judges could depart from the guidelines based on aggravating (gun, hate crime, etc) or mitigating circumstances (person had rehabilitated himself) Increased the number of people in prison, parole, and probation. In 2010, 3% of the us population was under some type of criminal supervision the highest prison population in the world. Judge paul cassell sentenced a 25 year old person to 55 years in prison for selling a small bag of marijuana because the man possessed a gun during the crime.
