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In law, a sentence forms the final act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence generally involves a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime. Those imprisoned for multiple crimes, will serve either a consecutive sentence (in which the period of imprisonment equals the sum of all the sentences) or a concurrent sentence (in which the period of imprisonment equals the length of the longest sentence). If a sentence gets reduced to a less harsh (or "softer") punishment, then the sentence is said to have been "mitigated". Sometimes murder charges are "mitigated" and reduced to manslaughter charges. However, in certain legal systems, a defendant may be punished beyond the terms of the sentence, e.g. social stigma, loss of governmental benefits, or collectively, the collateral consequences of criminal charges. Image File history File links Scale_of_justice. ...
Criminal procedure refers to the legal process for adjudicating claims that someone has violated the criminal law. ...
Headline text The rights of the accused is a class of rights in that apply to a person in the time period between when they are formally accused of a crime and when they are either convicted or acquitted. ...
The Right to a fair trial is an essential right in all countries respecting the rule of law. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
A jury trial is a trial in which the judge of the facts, as opposed to the judge of the law, is a jury, made up of citizens who are usually randomly selected and are generally not legal professionals. ...
Presumption of innocence is a legal right that the accused enjoys in criminal trials in many modern nations. ...
In United States constitutional law, the exclusionary rule is a legal principle holding that evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the U.S. Constitution is inadmissible for a criminal prosecution in a court of law (that is, it cannot be used in a criminal trial). ...
Self-incrimination is the act of accusing oneself of a crime for which a person can then be prosecuted. ...
Double jeopardy (also called autrefois acquit meaning already acquitted) is a procedural defense (and, in many countries such as the United States, Canada and India, a constitutional right) that forbids a defendant from being tried a second time for a crime, after having already been tried for the same crime. ...
In law, a verdict indicates the judgment of a case before a court of law. ...
In criminal law, an acquittal is the legal result of a verdict of not guilty, or some similar end of the proceeding that terminates it with prejudice without a verdict of guilty being entered against the accused. ...
Not proven is a verdict available to a court in Scotland. ...
In U.S. law, a directed verdict is an order from the judge presiding over a jury trial that one side or the other wins. ...
A mandatory sentence is a judicial decision setting the punishment to be inflicted on a person convicted of a crime where judicial discretion is limited by law. ...
A suspended sentence is a legal construct. ...
A custodial sentence is a judicial sentence, imposing a punishment (and hence the resulting punishment itself) consisting of mandatory custody of the convict, either in prison (incarceration) or in some other closed therapeutic and/or (re)educational institution, such as a reformatory, (maximum security) psychiatry or drug detoxication (especially cold...
In the Canadian legal system, the dangerous offender designation allows the courts to impose an indefinite sentence on a convicted person, regardless of whether the crime carries a life sentence or not. ...
Capital punishment, or the death penalty, is the execution of a convicted criminal by the State as punishment for crimes known as capital crimes or capital offenses. ...
An execution warrant is a warrant which authorizes the execution or capital punishment of an individual. ...
The statement that the government shall not inflict cruel and unusual punishment for crimes is found in the English Bill of Rights signed in 1689 by William of Orange and Queen Mary II who were then the joint rulers of England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. ...
Parole can have different meanings depending on the context. ...
Probation is the suspension of a prison or jail sentence - the criminal who is on probation has been convicted of a crime, but instead of serving prison time, has been found by the Court to be amenable to probation and will be returned to the community for a period in...
Under British criminal law, a tariff is the minimum period that a person serving an indefinite prison sentence must serve before that person becomes eligible for parole. ...
Life licence is a term used in the British criminal justice system for the conditions under which a prisoner sentenced to life in jail may be released. ...
A miscarriage of justice is primarily the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime that they did not commit. ...
Exoneration occurs when a person who has been convicted of a crime is later proved to have been innocent of that crime. ...
A pardon is the forgiveness of a crime and the penalty associated with it. ...
Criminal law (also known as penal law) is the body of statutory and common law that deals with crime and the legal punishment of criminal offenses. ...
The law of evidence governs the use of testimony (e. ...
Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the process that courts will follow when hearing cases of a civil nature (a civil action). These rules govern how a lawsuit or case may be commenced, what kind of service of process is required, the types of pleadings or...
See also Portal:Law The stela of King Hammurabi depicts the god Shamash revealing a code of laws to the king. ...
A judge or justice is an official who presides over a court. ...
Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick, Canada is an institution that is part of the Correctional Service of Canada. ...
A fine is money paid as a financial punishment for the commission of minor crimes or as the settlement of a claim. ...
Punishment is the practice of imposing something unpleasant on a subject as a response to some unwanted behavior or disobedience that the subject has displayed. ...
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute. ...
Collateral consequences of criminal charges are the results of arrest, prosecution or conviction that are not part of the sentence imposed. ...
The first use of this word with this meaning was in Roman law, where it indicated the opinion of a jurist on a given question, expressed in written or in oral responsa. It was also the opinion of senators (that was translated into the senatus consultus). It finally was also the decision of the judging organ (both in civil and in penal trials), as well as the decision of the Arbiter (in arbitration). Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome. ...
A jurist is a professional who studies, develops, applies or otherwise deals with the law. ...
The Roman Senate (Latin, Senatus) was a deliberative body which was important in the government of both the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. ...
Arbitration is a final and binding dispute resolution process. ...
In modern Latin systems the sentence is mainly the final act of any procedure in which a judge, or more generally an organ is called to express his evaluation, therefore it can be issued practically in any field of law requiring a function of evaluation of something by an organ.
Sentences are variously classified depending on:
- the legal field, or kind of action, or system it refers to:
- civil, penal, administrative, canon, ..., sentence.
- sentences of mere clearance, of condemnation, of constitution.
- the issuing organ (typically a monocratic judge or a court, or other figures that receive a legitimation by the system).
- the jurisdiction and the legal competence: single judges, courts, tribunals, appeals, supreme courts, constitutional courts, etc., meant as the various degrees of judgment and appeal.
- the content:
- partial, cautelar, interlocutory, preliminar (sententia instructoria), definitive sentences.
- sentence of absolutio (discharge) or condemnatio (briefly damnatio, also for other meanings - condemnation). The sentences of condemnation are also classified by the penalty they determine:
- sentence of reclusion,
- sentence of fee,
- sententia agendi, sentence that impose a determined action (or a series of action) as a penalty for the illegal act. This kind of sentence became better developed and remained in wider use in common law systems.
Usually the sentence comes after a process in which the deciding organ is put in condition to correctly evaluate whether the analysed conduct complies or not with the legal systems, and eventually which aspects of the conduct might regard which laws. Depending on respective systems, the phasis that precede [precedes?] the sentence may vary relevantly and the sentence can be resisted (by both parties) in front of up to a given degree of appeal. The sentence issued by the Appeal court of highest admitted degree immediately becomes the definitive sentence, as well as the sentence issued in minor degrees that is not resisted by the condemned or by the accusator (or is not resisted within a given time). The sentence usually has to be rendered of public domain (publicatio) and in most systems it has to be accompanied by the reasons for its content (a sort of story of the juridical reflections and evaluations that the judging organ used to produce it). This article concerns the common-law legal system, as contrasted with the civil law legal system; for other meanings of the term, within the field of law, see common law (disambiguation). ...
An appeal is the act or fact of challenging a judicially cognizable and binding judgment to a higher judicial authority. ...
A sentence (even a definitive one) can be annulled in some given cases, that many systems usually pre-determine. The most frequent case is related to irregularities found ex-post in the procedure, the most éclatant is perhaps in penal cases, when a relevant (often discharging) proof is discovered after the definitive sentence.
In most systems the definitive sentence is unique, in the precise sense that no one can be judged more than once for the same action (apart, obviously, from appeal resistance).
Sentences are in many systems a source of law, as an authoritative interpretation of the law in front of concrete cases, thus quite as an extension of the ordinary formal documental system.
The sentence is generally issued by the judge in the name of (or on the behalf of) the superior authority of the State. A state is a set of institutions that possess the authority to make the rules that govern a society, having internal and external sovereignty over a definite territory. ...
See also
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