Criminal Courtroom Procedure (U.S.) MCQ Questions Answers

1. _____ is known as punitive laws imposing mandatory life sentence in prison on conviction of a third felony

2. _____ is defined as imposition of a sentence in which the amount of time to be served is nullified

3. _____ is after conviction, a hearing to help the judge determine an appropriate sentence

4. Is risk assessment a method of calculating the odds an offender will commit more crime?

5. _____ is known as acts surrounding the commission of a crime that the judge may consider in fashioning an appropriate sentence without increasing the sentence in violation of Apprendi v. New Jersey (1999)

6. _____ is defined as process by which a court compares sentences imposed on similarly situated defendants to ensure that they have been sentenced fairly

7. _____ is a sentence releasing the defendant into the community under court supervision without the defendant having served any time in prison

8. Is presentence report the written result of the presentence investigation?

9. _____ is known as an investigation by the court of the defendant’s life and crime conducted to assist the judge in imposing an appropriate sentence

10. _____ is defined as a prisoner’s early release from confinement under court supervision

11. _____ is the executive branch (federal and all states) can commute an offender’s conviction.

12. Is megan’s Laws laws that require sex offenders to register and possibly notify the communities in which they live of their criminal history?

13. _____ is known as if an offender cannot get proper redress on appeal, courts may examine the case to fix a grave mistake; for some cases, redress is to obtain executive clemency

14. _____ is defined as a sentence that ensures an offender will serve no less than a certain number of years of incarceration

15. _____ is an appeal filed before a final judgment is rendered in a particular case

16. Is indeterminate sentencing a sentence of a range of years of imprisonment, such as 7 to 15 years, with the expectation that good behavior while in prison will result in an earlier release?

17. _____ is known as a rule that allows appeals only from decisions that definitively resolve an issue in the case

18. _____ is defined as enacted in 1987 to reduce sentencing disparities in federal courts; made federal sentencing a mathematical equation; once mandatory, now advisory

19. _____ is reduced the 100:1 powder cocaine to crack disparity in federal guideline sentencing

20. Is expungement the sealing or destroying of a defendant’s criminal record?

21. _____ is known as the process a convicted defendant must go through to finish all available levels of legal review before a higher court entertains an appeal

22. _____ is defined as the legal standard by which the U.S. Supreme Court removes certain defendants (e.g., juveniles who kill, and intellectually disabled offenders) from eligibility for the death penalty

23. _____ is a sentence imposed for a fixed period of time

24. Is cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the Eighth Amendment?

25. _____ is known as sentences imposed on one offender on conviction of many crimes that run one after the other (e.g., sentence A runs for 5 years, then sentence B starts to run)

26. _____ is defined as Sentences imposed on one offender on conviction of many crimes that run at the same time

27. _____ is an exception that allows appeals before a final judgment

28. Is capital punishment government-sanctioned homicide as a punishment for the crime of first-degree murder?

29. _____ is known as in death penalty cases, first minitrial determines whether the defendant is innocent of first-degree murder; if not, case proceeds to second minitrial, where the jury decides whether to impose a life without parole or death sentence

30. _____ is defined as shortened the time for, and the number of, habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of prisoners

31. _____ is the defendant’s right to address the court before sentence is imposed

32. Is actual innocence a defendant’s claim that to he is “innocent” of a crime for which he has been convicted?

33. _____ is known as a defense alleging that the time in which to prosecute certain crimes has elapsed. There is no statute of limitations for the crime of murder.

34. _____ is defined as some jurisdictions allow a person to use deadly force if threatened in a place where they have a legal right to be

35. _____ is a complete defense based on the use of reasonable force to repel a physical attack

36. Is rebuttable presumption can overcome conclusion children ages 8–14 have no mens rea?

37. _____ is known as a break from reality suffered by some mentally ill offenders

38. _____ is defined as the law assumes it is better to retreat than use deadly force; generally inapplicable to home invasions

39. _____ is a defense created by having to choose the lesser of two evils

40. Is m’Naghten test the defendant is insane if, at the time he committed the crime, he suffered from a mental defect that rendered him unable to understand the difference between right and wrong or to be unable to appreciate the criminality of his conduct?

41. _____ is known as an erroneous legal conclusion arrived at by a party who knows all the facts

42. _____ is defined as the erroneous belief in certain facts that leads the person to act (or fail to act) accordingly

43. _____ is a mental disorder recognized by the American Psychological Association and listed in the DSM-V

44. Is mental defect a mental disorder that impairs the way the brain processes information?

45. _____ is known as a mental disease or defect that prevents an offender from being able to resist the strong sudden urge to commit a criminal act

46. _____ is defined as children age 7 and younger cannot form mens rea

47. _____ is an altered state produced by the ingestion of drugs or alcohol; the condition may be voluntary or involuntary and may negate specific intent mens rea for some crimes

48. Is intellectual disability formerly mental retardation; characterized by an IQ of 70 or lower and two or more substantive deficits in adaptive or social functioning that manifest before the age of 18?

49. _____ is known as irrebutable presumption that children up to age 7 possess no mens rea. There is a rebuttable presumption that children aged 8 through 14 years possess no mens rea, but such presumption can be overcome by proof that the juvenile is able to appreciate the criminality of his conduct.

50. _____ is defined as legally defective claim of self-defense that involves the use of excessive force to repel an attack

51. _____ is a finding that the defendant is criminally responsible for his conduct but not insane

52. Is entrapment a defense based on government inducement to commit a crime that the defendant was not otherwise predisposed to commit?

53. _____ is known as a defense claiming that a person committed a crime because of force or a threat of force. Duress is never a defense to murder.

54. _____ is defined as a defense maintaining that the functioning of an offender’s brain at the time he or she committed an offense was impaired

55. _____ is a false fixed belief; commonly held by mentally ill offenders

56. Is defense of property may not use deadly force to protect property with no threat to human life?

57. _____ is known as a defense that a defendant may claim if he came to the aid of another in peril and if self-defense would be justified on the part of the person in peril

58. _____ is defined as an early way to describe battering and its effects

59. _____ is the ability to understand the nature of the trial proceedings and to assist defense counsel required of defendants at all stages of the criminal proceeding, from arrest to execution

60. Is burden of production the burden of introducing a legally sufficient quantum of evidence to permit the trier of fact (judge or jury) to consider the issue or defense during their deliberations?

61. _____ is known as the burden of convincing the trier of fact (judge or jury) that the legal claim or defense is valid

62. _____ is defined as A subset of self-defense defined by a repeated cycle of physical abuse that causes the victim to live in constant fear of being beaten, maimed, or killed; today the phrase used more often is “battering and its effects”

63. _____ is mens rea standard that applies to the defenses of infancy and insanity to assign the appropriate level of criminal culpability

64. Is alibi a complete defense that states that the defendant could not have committed the crime because he was at a location other than the crime scene when the crime was committed?

65. _____ is known as defendant may be found legally insane if at the time of the crime he lacked “substantial capacity either to appreciate the criminality of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.”

66. _____ is defined as the government cannot suppress speech because it disagrees with the speech’s content or message; the government can suppress unprotected speech.

67. _____ is a statute is void-for-vagueness and unconstitutional when people of ordinary intelligence must guess at the words’ meaning

68. Is unprotected speech speech and expression not protected by the First Amendment, such as fighting words, statements posing a clear and present danger, and obscene material?

69. _____ is known as the unlawful communication of a threat of violence to identifiable people; the speaker need not actually intend to carry out the threat; unprotected speech

70. _____ is defined as Permissible restriction on speech to accommodate civilized living (e.g., no speeches by bullhorn at 2:00 a.m.)

71. _____ is the highest level of review that courts use to examine government regulation of fundamental freedoms

72. Is speech what people communicate, includes expressive conduct?

73. _____ is known as protected under the First Amendment as a marketplace for the exchange of ideas, the hallmark of democracy

74. _____ is defined as a lustful, morbid, or shameful interest in nudity, sex, and/or excretion

75. _____ is the First Amendment protects speech and expressive conduct that communicates ideas, even if such speech is offensive.

76. Is overbroad a doctrine that invalidates laws that criminalize both protected and unprotected speech?

77. _____ is known as patently offensive sexual material that is defined by the Miller test as having no artistic, political, scientific, or literary value (e.g., child pornography)

78. _____ is defined as if a law will infringe on civil liberties, it must be written in the least intrusive manner

79. _____ is For obscenity, does the work appeal to the prurient interest? Is the work patently sexually offensive? Does the work taken as a whole lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value?

80. Is lemon test asks under the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause whether the law under review is secular, whether it fosters an extensive entanglement with religion, and whether it either advances or inhibits religion; a way to separate church and state?

81. _____ is known as government laws may not overburden civil liberties

82. _____ is defined as public employee speech is protected by the First Amendment if it relates to a matter of public concern and does not interfere with their boss’s ability to run the agency effectively.

83. _____ is Protects five freedoms: to establish and practice religion, practice free speech (which includes expressive conduct), maintain a free press, to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances

84. Is fighting words statements that, by their very utterance, inflict injury?

85. _____ is known as a law or warrant that appears legal “on its face”

86. _____ is defined as meant to communicate ideas such as burning the flag or a cross; protected free speech

87. _____ is the government cannot prohibit the free exercise of religion pursuant to the First Amendment, although people may not harm and kill others and claim religious freedom.

88. Is establishment Clause the government cannot interfere with the establishment of religion pursuant to the First Amendment. The Lemon test is used to ensure laws remain secular and do not foster an excessive entanglement with religion?

89. _____ is known as unlawful for the government to suppress speech based on its content, though the government can suppress unprotected speech

90. _____ is defined as minimum legal justification for public health, safety, and welfare required for the government to interfere with personal liberties

91. _____ is a risk posed to public safety by certain speech or conduct that incites immediate lawlessness; the government has the legal authority to suppress such speech and conduct

92. Is chilling effect the impact of vague laws that repress free speech rights by making people fear criminal reprisal for the content of their speech?

93. _____ is known as provides for the assistance of counsel, the right to confront witnesses, a public and speedy trial that will be held in the venue where the crime was committed, and provides for compulsory process (subpoenas) for obtaining witnesses in the defendant’s favor

94. _____ is defined as recognized, although not explicitly stated, in the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

95. _____ is under the standard announced by Strickland v. Washington (1984), counsel’s performance must fall below that expected of a reasonable attorney and such deficient performance must have affected the outcome of the case against the defendant

96. Is first appeal of right all convicted offenders have a right to one appeal under state or federal law; counsel appointed for mandatory appeals?

97. _____ is known as unlawful when the government places an informant near a suspect represented by counsel to “deliberately elicit” incriminating statements, such as asking “Why did you do it?”

98. _____ is defined as the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution, which gives defendants the right to see, hear, and confront (cross-examine) all witnesses against them in open court

99. _____ is to waive one’s rights pursuant to Miranda, it must be voluntary (no coercion), intelligent (know the consequences of the rights given up), and knowing (understand the function of Miranda protections).

100. Is trickery and deceit a legal interrogation technique where investigators lie to the suspect to induce a confession?