ALL WORK MUST BE IN APA FORMAT & CITED. MINIMUM WORD COUNT IS 1500 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING THE TITLE AND REFERENCE PAGE.
ASSIGNMENT:
1. What sentencing strategies are most closely associated with each sentencing purpose?
2. Between Donald Reinbolt's execution in 1963 for the 1962 murder of a Columbus, Ohio grocer, and the death sentence imposed on cop-killer Leonard Jenkins in 1981, almost 20 years elapsed.
Today, 20 years is almost the average time spent on death row for a convicted killer. Why was that time so brief in the recent past? Is your opinion, is this a factor of the law, morality, or technology? Explain.
3. Is capital punishment appropriate in some offenses other than murder? Support your answer with legal reasoning. Is the manner in how capital punishment is imposed a question of legality, morality, or emotion based on public opinion?
Should the decision come from a balance of those issues, or does the type and nature of the offense counter balance how the punishment is carried out (e.g., the death sentence imposed on a convicted defendant who raped and murdered a child). Why?
4. B. A. Dapple was charged and tried with two crimes arising out of the same set of facts: distribution of a controlled substance and possession of an unregistered firearm. He was also charged with being a habitual offender. The jury returned a verdict of guilty on the distribution charge and not guilty on the firearms charge.
The judge conducted a sentencing hearing at which she concluded that Dapple used the firearm while distributing the drugs. She increased his sentence as a result, sentencing him at the higher end of the scale for distribution, nine years.
The statute provides for 5-10 years for distribution of a controlled substance. She then ordered the jury to hear evidence that Dabble is a habitual offender.
In her state, three felony convictions in a 10-year period make an offender "habitual." The jury heard the evidence of Dabble's two prior convictions, one for aggravated battery and the other for rape, and found Dabble to be a habitual offender.
State law required the imposition of death for habitual offenders when one or more of the convictions was of a violent crime. Accordingly, the state judge sentenced Dabble to death on the habitual offender charge. Discuss all Sixth Amendment and Eighth Amendment issues you find, citing applicable cases.