Sentences with phrase «allow mandatory sentencing»
But he and other prison reform advocates called on Congress to pass legislation to undo laws that allow mandatory sentencing to continue.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/ Not exact matches
Similarly, the majority of gun owners (67 percent) also support allowing cities to sue licensed gun dealers when the gun dealer's sales practices allow criminals to obtain guns and requiring a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for a person convicted of knowingly selling a gun to someone who can not legally have one (71 percent).
«Softer» drugs like marijuana are allowed for medicinal use, and possession for non-licensed individuals may result in a misdemeanor rather than a felony, but even for marijuana there's a mandatory minimum sentencing guideline.
Because this charge has what is called a «mandatory minimum», other sentencing options that typically allow you to avoid a criminal record while still pleading guilty, such as a «conditional discharge», are not available.
In the alternative, Parliament could provide for judicial discretion to allow for a lesser sentence where the mandatory minimum would be grossly disproportionate and would constitute cruel and unusual punishment,» said the majority.
«In the alternative, Parliament could provide for judicial discretion to allow for a lesser sentence where the mandatory minimum would be grossly disproportionate and would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.»
The Court properly and succinctly recognized that unless sentencing judges are allowed to define their alternative scorings categorically and honestly, there are only two possible outcomes: Either the guidelines are essentially mandatory, or judges lie about their reasoning, which is «institutional subterfuge.»
Perhaps the answer will come from the ghost of Irwin Cotler, who in one of his last acts as a member of Parliament introduced a private member's bill that would allow judges to consider particular circumstances at sentencing, notwithstanding mandatory minimums.
The American criminal justice system is far from being sufficiently enlightened, starting by too many presumed - innocent people caged without bond pending sentencing, moving to Virginia's crabbed criminal discovery system, continuing to Virginia's system that allows prosecutors to scare defendants to plead guilty by their refusal to waive a jury that in many instances and locations can mean more racist jurors than judges on top of the jurors often being more wild cards than judges for sentencing, continuing to the many judges who choose judicial efficiency over a fair trial, continuing to the brutal capital punishment system, cntinuing to excessive mandatory minimum and guideline sentencing, and continuing to the slew of innocent convicted people (many of whom plead gulilty rather than risking a worse fate), and continuing to frequently excessive sentences and excessive probation violation sentences.
The safety valve also restores a partial measure of judicial discretion, allowing a judge to sentence below a statutory mandatory minimum, should the judge believe the sentence is too harsh for the offense committed...
Nothing in the safety valve prevents judges from sentencing prisoners at or above the mandatory minimum even if they are eligible for the safety valve, but simply allows judicial discretion to ensure that prison resources are being used where they can best protect public safety, and not wasted on nonviolent, low - level drug offenders.
In that mandatory system, a judge was not allowed to consider any factor (often a «policy» factor) that the Sentencing Commission had already considered.
«Supreme Court Allows Lighter Crack Sentences; Justices Say Sentencing Guidelines Are Advisory, Not Mandatory»: Robert Barnes of The Washington Post provides this news update.
The issue of sentencing was adjourned to allow the accused to pursue an application challenging the constitutionality of the mandatory minimum sentence pursuant to s. 12 of the Charter (i.e., the provision respecting cruel and unusual punishment).
In his last act as a member of Parliament, former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler introduced a private members» bill that would allow judges to impose a fair and appropriate sentence, notwithstanding mandatory minimums.
The mandatory detention laws in the Northern Territory and Western Australia do not allow for a right of appeal against the sentence, if the sentence should equate with the minimum permitted, and is therefore in breach of the ICCPR.