NCJ Number
121192
Journal
Justice Professional Volume: 4 Issue: 2 Dated: (Fall 1989) Pages: 157-171
Date Published
1989
Length
15 pages
Annotation
There is a certain predictability and consistency about sentences imposed in a large city where the defendants plead guilty and the crime has not aroused the attention of the media. On the other hand, sentences do not follow this pattern when a defendant chooses to go to trial and the prosecutor sees an opportunity of advancing himself politically by "trying the case on television or in the newspapers."
Abstract
Three examples are given of cases which were media events and where the judges' sentences were apparently influenced by the prosecutors using the media to influence the sentencing judge or where the media itself generated the pressure on the sentencing judge. In these cases the sentences did not follow the pattern of sentences imposed in similar cases. (Author abstract)