NCJ Number
92971
Journal
Wake Forest Law Review Volume: 18 Dated: (1982) Pages: 523-536
Date Published
1982
Length
14 pages
Annotation
An analysis of Supreme Court decisions regarding sentencing due process in the indeterminate era identifies principles which probably will guide the Court in deciding future due process cases involving determinate sentencing.
Abstract
Early principles of sentencing due process doctrine are generally associated with Williams v. New York (1949), although this ruling marked a departure from another decision, Townsend v. Burke (1948), which favored increased due process safeguards at sentencing. Three recent decisions indicated that the Court is following the Williams authority which supports traditional individualized sentencing based on a broad inquiry: United States v. Tucker, United States v. Grayson, and Roberts v. United States. However, the Court has afforded significant due process protections to defendants in special tracking sentencing proceedings, correctional decisionmaking hearings, and capital sentencing procedures. Analyses of case law reveal unwelcome inconsistencies replete with doctrinal gaps, but also show that the Court is inclined to grant stricter safeguards in accord with recognizable sentencing factors. These include nonrehabilitation penal aims, limited judicial discretion, accusatorial procedural devices, unreliable information about the defendant, requirements that the sentencing decisionmaker make findings of fact, and a lack of understanding by the Court of the postadjudication operation under review. As the determinate model becomes the norm in sentencing, due process standards must be developed to ensure that the goals embraced by the new model are not attained at the sacrifice of established principles of procedural fairness. The paper has 100 footnotes.