BLAW 5

The ____ Amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishments.

Average Corp. was convicted of violating the federal mail fraud statute due to the activities of some of its employees, who had used the U.S. mail to perpetrate a fraudulent scheme designed to advance the otherwise legitimate business interests of Average. Average has appealed, arguing that its conviction should be set aside because the employees in question were relatively minor officials of the company and were acting without the knowledge or consent of any high-level corporate officer. In addition, Average argues that the involved employees were acting in violation of a longstanding and well-known Average policy against fraudulent schemes. Should Average’s conviction be set aside?

Most serious crimes require mens rea, or criminal:

When a judge’s sentencing decision is challenged on appeal, the governing standard will be one of reasonableness.

Infractions:

A(n) _____ is a formal charge signed by the prosecutor outlining the facts supporting the charges against the defendant.

Which of the following serves essentially the same function as a magistrate’s probable cause determination?

The standard of proof in a criminal case is:

_____ is the change in the attitudes or values of convicted offenders so that they are not inclined to commit future offenses.

Which of the following pretrial steps occurs nearest in time to the trial in a felony prosecution?

A defendant’s act must have been prohibited by statute at the time he/she committed it and the penalty imposed must be the one provided for at the time of his/her offense. This essentially indicates:

Assume that an applicable state statute makes it a crime for a private citizen to possess a machine gun. For approximately three weeks, officer Roy Holt had had probable cause to believe that Alex Hood, a private citizen, possessed an arsenal of machine guns in his apartment. Acting on this probable cause but without a warrant, Holt knocked on the door of Hood’s apartment and asked Hood if he could come in to talk to him. Hood let Holt in. Then, without Hood’s consent, Holt began searching the entire apartment. Holt found several machine guns in the bedroom closet. He arrested Hood for an alleged violation of the statute mentioned above. In a pretrial motion, Hood’s attorney has asked that the court apply the exclusionary rule and suppress the evidence yielded by Holt’s search of Hood’s apartment. Should the evidence be suppressed?

The Fifth Amendment guarantees indigent defendants the right to court-appointed counsel.

Which of the following is true about the Fifth Amendment and the production of records?

Although a nolo contendere plea may lead to a judicial determination of guilt, it is inadmissible in later civil cases against the defendant based on the same conduct amounting to the criminal violation.

What is recidivism?

What is the basic remedial device in cases of Fourth Amendment violations?

Voluntary intoxication usually serves as a complete defense to criminal liability.

The Double Jeopardy Clause:

Assume that a state, acting through the appropriate county prosecutor, plans to initiate a felony prosecution against Joe Beck. Further assume that the state is among those in which felony defendants may be charged by either of the two methods discussed in the text. Which of the following is an accurate statement?

_____ believe that prevention of socially undesirable behavior is the only proper purpose of criminal penalties.

Which of the following is a criticism of the USA PATRIOT Act?

Rachael was arrested by the police on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance. She was informed of her Miranda rights. Rachael waived her right to remain silent and confessed to the crime after a brief period of police interrogation. Her confession is:

The _____ Amendment protects against compelled testimonial self-incrimination by establishing that “[n]o person . . . shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself.”

Obscene noncommercial expressions receive no First Amendment protection.

Owners of commercial property enjoy greater privacy expectations in their property for Fourth Amendment purposes than do owners of residential property.

The U.S. Constitution allows ex post facto criminal laws.

“White-collar crime” is the term used to describe a wide variety of offenses committed by:

According to the law, crimes are statutory offenses; this essentially means that:

As a general rule, the Court has held that searches carried out without a proper warrant are unreasonable.

A(n) _____ is a serious crime such as murder, sexual assault, arson, drug-dealing, or a theft or fraud offense of sufficient magnitude.

Which of the following is true of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)?

The First Amendment limits governmental power to enact and enforce criminal laws by prohibiting:

Under the USA PATRIOT Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court may issue warrants of the “sneak and peek” variety.

Which of the following is a characteristic of the USA PATRIOT Act?

The Eighth Amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishments.

Strict liability offenses:

_____ is effectively a conditional sentence that suspends the usual imprisonment and/or fine if the offender “toes the line” and meets other judicially imposed conditions for the period specified by the court.

Which of the following characterizes searches?

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:

At a preliminary hearing in a felony case, the government must prove its case by the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard.

The expansion of corporate criminal liability in imputing the criminal intent of employees to the corporation falls under the scope of:

_____ means that the accused failed to perceive a substantial risk of harm that a reasonable person would have perceived.

Special deterrence results when punishment of a wrongdoer deters other persons from committing similar offenses.

A defendant’s constitutional right to be free from compelled testimonial self-incrimination not only bars the prosecution from calling him/her as a witness at the trial of a criminal case against him/her, but also bars the plaintiff from calling him/her as a witness at the trial of a civil case against him/her.

When a court applies the exclusionary rule in a criminal case, it means that:

Corporations may be held criminally liable even in the absence of proof that high corporate officers ordered or acquiesced in the offense charged.

Although not a complete defense to criminal liability, _____ may diminish the degree of a defendant’s responsibility in a crime.

When Congress created the U.S. Sentencing Commission and charged it with creating Sentencing Guidelines, Congress sought (among other things) to decrease the discretion of judges in making sentencing decisions.

Which of the following is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment?