American Sentencing—Law and Practice 7 Stith, Kate & Cabranes, José. 1997. “Judging under the Federal Sentenc- ing Guidelines.” Northwestern University Law Review , 91, 1247. Tonry, Michael. 2004. Thinking about Crime: Sense and Sensibility in Amer- ican Penal Culture . New York: Oxford University Press. U.S. Sentencing Commission. 2011. Mandatory Minimum Penalties in the Federal Criminal Justice System . Washington, DC: U.S. Sentencing Commission. Zimring, Franklin, Hawkins, Gordon, & Kamin, Sam. 2001. Punishment and Democracy: Three Strikes and You Are Out in California . New York: Oxford University Press. Q2: DO MODERN-DAY PROSECUTORS DICTATE SENTENCES FOR CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS? Answer: Although prosecutors do not formally impose sentences, they have long had a great deal of infl uence over the severity of punishment imposed on people convicted of crimes. That infl uence increased as judi- cial sentencing discretion diminished in the late twentieth century. In most cases, prosecutors are not in a position simply to dictate the sen- tence, but their charging and plea-bargaining decisions do set key param- eters within which the sentencing judge operates. It is a matter of debate whether the prosecutor’s resulting power over punishment leads to exces- sively harsh or otherwise ill-advised sentences. The Facts: The prosecutor has arguably become the most powerful decision maker in the American criminal justice system. Yet, it remains diffi cult to characterize the fundamental nature of the prosecutor’s role. Prosecutors are lawyers, and lawyers typically act on behalf of clients, but who is the prosecutor’s client? Sometimes, prosecutors seem to act on behalf of crime victims. Yet, many criminal cases lack a clearly identifi able victim (think, for instance, of drug or no-accident DUI cases). In many other instances, the prosecutor seems to have a rather different set of pri- orities than the victim (O’Hear, 2007). For instance, a prosecutor might prefer the convenience of a quick plea deal, while the victim might resist giving any break to the offender in order to induce a guilty plea. Alternatively, it might be more helpful to think of police offi cers as the prosecutor’s client. It is the police who initially push forward the cases that lack an identifi able, engaged victim. Indeed, in many cases, the offi - cer who has done the investigative work may come to feel that he or she has a stake in the case’s outcome and may lobby the prosecutor to handle
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