POLS 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Appellate Jurisdiction, Legal Fiction
29 Sep 2016
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Before using it as a defense you must admit to committing the crime first. Juries don"t like insanity as a defense legal fiction because they view it as either one has committed the crime or not, jurors don"t understand this concept. In consecutive sentencing, a defendant"s sentences are served one at a time. So, if someone is convicted of three crimes, one that carries a sentence of five years, another with two years, and another with one year, then these sentences are totaled at eight years and served one after the other. Concurrent sentences can be served all at the same time rather than back-to-back. This means that if you"re convicted of three crimes, one with a five-year sentence, one with a three year sentence, and another with a two year sentence, the most time you"ll spend in jail is five years. This type of sentencing only occurs if the crimes committed are eligible for concurrent sentences.
