Sentencing Of The Criminal Code

Thesis: Canada's criminal justice system, specifically laws dealing with punishment, is far superior to that of the United States

Jamie Tanis Galdue, the offender, was drinking and celebrating her 19th birthday on September 16, 1995 with friends in Nanaimo, BC. She suspected that the victim, her boyfriend, was having an affair with her older sister, Tara. Gladue made specific threats that "he was going to get it." Following a confrontation, the offender stabbed the victim in the chest. She was charged with second degree murder and ultimately convicted of manslaughter. At her sentencing hearing, the judge took into account many aggravating factors, such as the fact that the offender was not afraid of the victim. The court also took into account several mitigating factors, such as her youth, her status as a mother and the absence of any serious criminal history. She was sentenced to three years imprisonment. At her trial and at the Court of Appeal for British Columbia the court upheld the sentence, finding that s.

"Any court dealing with an offender in respect of his offense must have regard to the following purposes of sentencing" retribution, denunciation, incapacitation, deterrence, rehabilitation and reparation which will all be discussed in this essay.

The first section is for the mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison for first and second-degree murder and treason. The second section deals with firearms offences. The third section of mandatory minimum sentences address repeat offenders in seven distinct categories, which involve impaired driving and possession of unauthorized weapons (Canada, 2013). The last category of MMS in Canada deals with hybrid offences. These were implemented in the Canadian legislation in 1995. If an offender commits a crime that has been determined to result in a mandatory minimum sentence within the Canadian Legislation, the judge must implement that sentence no matter what the aggravating or mitigating factors are. Due to this sentencing legislation, many innocent people are serving time in prison due to a false conviction and the lack of judicial discretion in their individual case. Even though mandatory minimum sentences offer more costs then rewards, some politicians, community members and victims of crime still support it due to the proposed retributive and deterrent effects. There have been many cases and arguments against mandatory minimum sentences especially due to the fact that it restricts the judge’s discretion during the sentencing process. These will be discussed in more depth throughout this paper.

The increase in violent rapes and murders being committed by paroled prisoners in Victoria, such as those committed by Adrian Bailey in 2012, and Sean Price in 2015, have led to the tightening of parole laws, removal of suspended sentences, and introduction of new mandatory sentencing laws. However, while these laws can be an effective way of reducing crime, reducing reoffending by 17-20 percent (Helland and Tabarrok, 2007), they also are a departure from the doctrine of the separation of powers (Solonec, 2015). The purpose of this essay will be to assess how detrimental the removal of objective sentencing will be to society, through the implementation of policies such as mandatory sentencing, stricter parole laws, and the removal of

The court system is an organization in order to provide swift and accurate judgement to the public. When an individual commits a crime they are summoned to appear before a judge. The judge is the individual who will determine their fines, jail time and the overall outcome of a case. This paper will discuss mandatory minimum sentences and sentencing guidelines.

The recording is based on research founded by Nazgol Ghandnoosh, who is a research analyst for the sentencing project. The sentencing project is a non-profit group that advocates for the criminal justice reform. She also, is an author of a report called “Race and Punishment: Racial Perceptions of Crime and Support for Punitive Policies, which is about her study of police shootings disproportionately affecting African American and how media coverage shows racial bias against African American. In addition, a 2002 survey found that people made an estimate that 40 percent of those that committed violent crimes were African American, but the real percentage was only 29 percent. According to Nazgol Ghandnoosh (2015), a research

There are many factors that influence or have a bearing on the sentencing of an individual after the acknowledgement or conviction related to one’s guilt. Factors such as, prior criminal history and severity of the crime, but the factors that should not determine the sentence imposed are ones of race or ethnicity, gender, among others. It is clear to anyone associated with the criminal justice system, from law enforcement personnel, to the judicial system, that sentencing of some individuals has shown a disparity regarding gender, and ethnicity. Now this is not to say that there is an intentional outright decision to sentence these groups to a more extensive sentence or sentence at all, just based on their race or ethnicity.

Cases of abuse towards women are not investigated enough and often result in improper outcomes. Imprisonment of minority women and disabled women adds to the cycle of poverty and crime. There is mass incarceration in Canada due to discriminatory sentencing based on new laws, income, race, and gender. Recent changes to the Criminal Code and changes under the conservative government during the past 8 years have contributed to the mass incarceration agenda.

Beginning with the enactment of Bill C-68 in 1995, mandatory minimums were introduced into Canada in hopes of deterring criminals from committing heinous crimes; however, their ability to constrain judicial desecration paired with the lack of an increase in crime prevention benefits have made them an unnecessary addition to the Criminal Code of Canada. The mandatory minimums within Canada are not only ineffective as a deterrent, but they are also the culprit behind the uneven sentencing set out for those convicted in drug, gun or sex crimes. Every sentence which is given by a judge should be individualized to the criminal. Offenders should be a judge consider their particular circumstances are they are individuals, and there is no ‘one

The Canadian criminal justice system consists of multiple roles in order to sustain a well-working government system. The system is put in place in order to keep safety, equality, peace and fairness. There are four main functions of the criminal justice system that are interrelated segments that help protect a society from crime. The criminal justice system consists of policing, courts, corrections and parole. The component of the Canadian Criminal Justice System that will be discussed is about the process and function of the courts.

The purposes of sentencing are set out in the Crimes (Sentencing Procedures) Act 1999 (NSW) and fundamentally include deterrence, retribution, rehabilitation and incapacitation as the purposes by which a judge may impose a sentence. Deterrence intends to

Criminal procedure today deals with sets of rules that govern series of proceedings and which the government enforces criminal law. States and the federal government have their own criminal codes which define the type of conduct that would be considered a crime. Title 18 of the U.S. codes outlines all federal crimes typically crimes that deal with activities that go beyond state boundaries and which impacts federal interests. In state prosecutions, the state follows the criminal code of the individual state. Every state has its own criminal code and many states choose to follow or mimic the federal rules. The state procedural rules offer a defendant in a criminal prosecution greater protection than the U.S. constitution but it may not offer less protection. In today’s criminal procedures we a see lot of civil rights violations and criminal procedure violations, this usually happens in the streets when an officer doesn’t follow protocols and in the same instance violates that person’s civil rights for an unjustified arrest and lately suspects have been being injured once already in police custody for excessive force by the police officer. In Megan Sheehan, Plaintiff, v. Bay Area Rapid Transit, et al. is a perfect example of the excessive forced. March 17th, 2014 Megan Sheehan a bartender for an Irish bar in downtown San Francisco began to drink during her lunch break and as her shift ended she continued to drink as the night went on she was found sleeping on the bench in Lake

These aggravating factors include, but are not limited to; Trying to leave Canada into the U.S illegally, with another nine people who have no identification, Trafficking children under the age of 18 and five of them, Trafficking adults over the age of 18 (four of them), and lastly, Abusing the Canadian Immigration System as well as the Canadian border system. This was taken into consideration while preparing the sentence. The goals of the sentence will be heavily towards the protection the public from your outrageous behaviour. Not knowing if you will come out of jail to repeat such actions we must keep safe the children, adults, and elderlies in our society. Rehabilitation is another aspect of the goal of your sentence. While completing your sentence you will be going to weekly classes about the Canadian law and Humanity classes building yourself to become a better person. Though you will not be able to use these classes in the real world, you must learn about the actions that you took and how they affected the people.

It is through this that philosophers, government and prison officials have arrived at the five traditional goals of punishment which replicates elements of criminal punishment. They are retribution, rehabilitation, deterrence, restoration and incapacitation. Retribution, rehabilitation and deterrence are however the three most frequently used in today’s modern society, as they are the main justifications for punishment.