CASE 13.1
Throughout most of our nation’s history, the three broad constitutional provisions
dealing with trial by jury had little applicability in state courts. The U.S. Constitution
applied only to trials in federal courts. These practices changed dramatically, however,
when the Supreme Court decided Duncan v. Louisiana (1968), ruling that the jury
provisions of the Sixth Amendment were incorporated by the Due Process Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment to apply to state courts, as well. Subsequent decisions grappled
with the problem of defining the precise meaning of the right to trial by jury. The most
important issues concerned the scope of the right to a jury trial, the size of the jury, and
unanimous versus nonunanimous verdicts.
Most state constitutions specifically require
a. a supermajority verdict in criminal trials.
b. a unanimous verdict in criminal trials.
c. a simple majority verdict in criminal trials.
d. None of these answers is correct.
What is it called when the jury ignores the law and acquits an obviously guilty
defendant?
a. jury nullification
b. jury reversal
c. jury invalidation
d. jury obfuscation
The key components of court unification do not include
a. simplified court structure
b. decentralized administration
c. centralized rule making
d. centralized judicial budgeting
When a defendant bears the burden of persuasion to prove a defense, it is called a(n):
a. alibi defense
b. affirmative defense
c. defense rebuttal
d. violation of due process
CASE 15.1
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, an unusual political coalition developed between
liberals and conservatives. Both sides found considerable fault in existing sentencing
practices. Although their reasons reflected fundamentally different concerns, liberals
and conservatives defined the problem in similar terms: The criminal laws permitted too
much latitude in sentencing, providing judges with little or no guidance on how to
determine the proper sentence for each individual case.
Adherents of the crime control model were not concerned with
a. excessive discretion.
b. undue leniency.
c. disparity.
d. lenient parole boards.
Which of the following is not a major area of civil law?
a. personal injury
b. inheritance/probate
c. divorce and child custody
d. juvenile delinquency
Which of the following states reported the highest levels of overcrowding?
a. Alabama.
b. New York.
c. Indiana.
d. California.
Symbolic restitution usually involves some form of
a. community service.
b. direct payment to the victim.
c. imprisonment.
d. a fine.
What member of the court room work group generally conducts a pre-sentence
investigation?
a. the defense attorney.
b. the probation officer.
c. the prosecutor.
d. the judge.
CASE 17.2
The nature of the juvenile court process remained unchanged until the 1960s. When the
Warren Court began to scrutinize procedures in adult criminal courts, its attention
turned also to juvenile courts. In a groundbreaking decision, the Supreme Court held in
In re Gault (1967) that the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to
juvenile court proceedings. The court emphasized that “under our Constitution the
condition of being a boy does not justify a kangaroo court.”
In what case following In re Gault did the Court hold that a juvenile is charged with an
act that would be a crime if committed by an adult, then every element of that criminal
act must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt?
a. In re Winship.
b. In re L.M.
c. In re McKeiver.
d. In re Schall.
Which of the following is not a major subcomponent of discretion?
a. legal judgments c. judicial restraints
b. policy priorities d. personal philosophies
The most common type of post-conviction relief is
a. habeas corpus.
b. mandamus.
c. de novo.
d. emeritus.
The concept of assembly-line justice stresses
a. the high volume of cases in courthouses.
b. the emphasis on moving the docket.
c. the low volume of cases in courthouses.
d. the high volume of cases in courthouses and the emphasis on moving the docket.
In what case did the Court declare that most U.S. death penalty laws were
unconstitutional due to their arbitrary nature?
a. Furman v. Georgia (1972)
b. Roper v. Simmons (2005)
c. Gregg v. Georgia (1976)
d. Atkins v. Virginia (2002)
In what case, in 1972, did the U.S. Supreme Court strike down all capital punishment
laws?
a. Furman v. Georgia
b. Thomas v. Georgia
c. Clark v. Georgia
d. Gregory v. Georgia
Litigants in state courts are most often
a. large and small businesses.
b. individuals and small businesses.
c. large businesses and governmental bodies.
d. individuals and governmental bodies.
What two provisions of the U.S. Constitution often come into conflict in high-profile
criminal cases?
a. The Sixth Amendment and the Seventh Amendment.
b. The Fourth Amendment and the Fifth Amendment.
c. The First Amendment and the Sixth Amendment.
d. The Seventh Amendment and the Eighth Amendment.
Researchers find that defense attorneys who take a cooperative posture with other
members of the courtroom work group
a. are more likely to have prosecutors disclose information helpful to the defense.
b. are more likely to negotiate favorable plea bargains.
c. function as better counselors, because they are better able to predict the reactions of
the court community to individual cases.
d. All of these answers are correct.
Which of the following is the federal court of last resort in the United States?
a. U.S. District Court
b. U.S. Court of Criminal Appeals
c. U.S. Supreme Court
d. U.S. Magistrate Court
During the Constitutional Convention, Anti-Federalists maintained the belief that a
strong national government would:
a. provide political and economic unity.
b. weaken individual liberties.
c. abolish state courts.
d. create a uniform body of federal law.
Most lawyers practice civil law because it is more
a. lucrative.
b. expensive.
c. time-consuming.
d. problematic.
Which of the examples below does not constitute a federal question, for purposes of
review by an Article III court?
a. Whether or not a state supreme court misinterpreted the state’s divorce law in an
action for marital dissolution.
b. Whether or not a disabled person has the right to sue a restaurant for failure to
provide access by a wheel chair.
c. Whether or not a federally insured bank may manipulate the prime interest rate or
collaborate with other banks to set rates.
d. Whether or not a person was denied a job because of their race.
The major trial courts decide felony cases and civil cases including
a. domestic relations
b. drug cases
c. voyeurism
d. kidnapping
A defendant who pleads guilty is generally required to read and sign what form?
a. A Boykin form
b. A Crockett form
c. A Reeves form
d. A Santobello form
Discovery in federal cases is governed by sections of Rules covered in the Federal
Rules of Criminal Procedure. Collectively, these Rules provide a defendant, upon
motion, rights to discovery concerning what types of evidence?
a. books, papers, and documents, including written or recorded statements made by
defendants or witnesses.
b. the results or reports of forensic tests.
c. summaries of expert testimony that the government intends to offer.
d. These rules provide a defendant right to discovery of all of these types of evidence.
What courts are at the first level of state courts?
a. trial courts of limited jurisdiction
b. justice of the peace courts
c. municipal courts
d. problem-solving courts
CASE 3.1
The founding fathers engaged in a vigorous debate over whether there should be a
federal court system separate from the state systems. Those who supported a strong
federal judiciary ultimately prevailed. Subsequent expansion of the federal courts has
created a contemporary controversy over how to alleviate the problem of rising
caseloads within the federal court system.
Which of the following proposals would our Federalist founding fathers most likely
support?
a. Abolish federal diversity jurisdiction except in certain cases.
b. Abolish concurrent jurisdiction on crimes punishable by both state and federal law.
c. Creation of several new Article I legislative courts.
d. Limit ability of prisoners to file civil rights lawsuits.
CASE 6.2
Ethical issues facing prosecutors are very different from those confronting defense
attorneys because prosecutors do not represent individual clients. Prosecutors often
define their jobs as representing victims of crime and the police, but these are not
typically considered to fit under the attorney”client relationship. Rather, the client of the
prosecutor is the government, and for this reason prosecutors are given special
responsibilities.
Prosecutors enjoy what kind of immunity from civil liability for everything they do
with regard to the core prosecutorial functions of initiating criminal charges and
pursuing criminal convictions as the government’s advocate?
a. Absolute immunity.
b. Comprehensive immunity.
c. Partial immunity.
d. Qualified immunity.
CASE 14.1
No consensus exists on how the courts should punish the guilty, perhaps due to the fact
that five different philosophical principles guide sentencing in the United States:
retribution, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation, and restoration. These sentencing
philosophies differ in important ways. Some focus on past behavior, whereas others are
future-oriented. Some stress that the punishment should fit the crime, whereas others
emphasize that punishment should fit the criminal. These issues influence contemporary
thinking about sentencing.
Prevention of crime through the physical restraint of offenders is an idea incorporated
in which of the following sentencing philosophies?
a. Retribution.
b. Incapacitation.
c. Deterrence.
d. Rehabilitation.
In U.S. v. Georgia (2006), the U.S. Supreme Court held that states and municipalities
can be held civilly liable for failing to:
a. abolish height and weight requirements for criminal justice agencies.
b. maintain correctional facilities that accommodate the special needs of disabled
prisoners.
c. create exemptions for bona fide occupational qualifications in hiring and promotion.
d. provide special training for employees on the requirements of the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
CASE 7.2
Is it enough to have a lawyer? Must the lawyer also be competent and effective? The
Supreme Court has recognized the effective assistance of counsel as essential to the
Sixth Amendment guarantee (McMann v. Richardson 1970).
In regards to ineffective assistance of counsel, appellate courts must reverse only if the
proceedings were fundamentally unfair and
a. the outcome would have been different if counsel had not been ineffective.
b. the outcome would have been worse if counsel had not been ineffective.
c. the outcome would have been better if counsel had not been ineffective.
d. the outcome would have been the same if counsel had not been ineffective.
Which of the following is true regarding the role that forensic science has played in
wrongful convictions?
a. Forensic scientific evidence either caused or contributed to wrongful convictions in
over half of the Innocence Project’s DNA exoneration cases.
b. Forensic scientists who provide evidence on comparative bullet analysis and arson
investigation rely on assumptions that are under-researched and oversold.
c. Experts have recently noted that there is little empirical evidence to support the
uniqueness of teeth marks, shoeprints, or weapon markings.
d. All of these answers are correct.
All of the following are exceptions to the exclusionary rule except
a. attenuation
b. inevitable discovery
c. plain view
d. good sense
Teams of jury consultants use which of the following to assist in jury selection?
a. public opinion polls.
b. focus groups.
c. mock trials.
d. all of these answers are correct.
CASE 8.3
For most Americans, the judge is the symbol of justice. Of all the actors in the criminal
justice process, the public holds the judge most responsible for ensuring that the system
operates fairly and impartially. And most certainly the trappings of officethe flowing
black robes, the gavel, and the command “All rise!” when the judge enters the
courtroomreinforce this mystique. As important as these symbols are, they sometimes
raise obstacles to understanding what judges actually do and how they influence the
criminal justice process.
The formal powers of judges extend
a. throughout the criminal court process.
b. from arrest throughout the criminal court process.
c. from the time an offenders commits a crime to prison.
d. None of these answers is correct.
Describe a program designed to improve police-prosecutor relationships. What does
research say about the effectiveness of such programs? Do you think they are effective?
Why or why not?
Courthouse regulars work together cooperatively on a daily basis in ways not
envisioned by the formal adversary model.
The trend since the 1970s has been to reduce judicial discretion in sentencing.
Explain why few cases go to trial but most defendants plead guilty.
Using arguments identified in the chapter, evaluate whether the exclusionary rule
should be abolished.
Intermediate courts of appeals must hear all properly filed appeals.
Discuss the function and importance of the grand jury.
In child-victim cases the child has committed no crime.
Juvenile courts in urban areas tend to send proportionally fewer delinquents to state
detention facilities than do courts that serve less populous areas because urban areas
tend to have more institutional resources to deal with these youths.
Proceedings in juvenile court are more formal than in adult court.
The Fifth Amendment ban on ___________________________ generally prohibits
retrial of a person who has already been convicted of the same crime.
Legislatures did not become a principal source of law in the U.S. until the 20th century.
A majority of judges are directly and actively involved in plea negotiations.
____________________ refers to the study and analysis of what constitutes good or
bad conduct.
In United States v. Booker (2005), the Supreme Court held that the federal sentencing
guidelines are unconstitutional but judges may use them as advisory.
In Gregg v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court held that for a death penalty law to be
constitutional, it must provide for a __________________________ process. The first
phase determines guilt. The second phase, provided that the defendant is convicted,
determines whether the death penalty should be imposed.
Television and movies accurately portray the realities of courtroom justice.
In what ways do special limitations on expert witnesses affect the litigation of criminal
cases? Discuss the cases that helped determine limitations on expert witnesses. Include
a discussion of Fry and Daubert.
Because prosecutors represent the government, they enjoy a great deal of immunity.
The standard of proof for the prosecutor at a preliminary hearing is _______________.