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A convict is "a person found guilty of a crime and sentenced by a court" or "a person serving a sentence in prison". [1] Convicts are often also known as "prisoners" or "inmates" or by the slang term "con", [2] while a common label for former convicts, especially those recently released from prison, is "ex-con" ("ex-convict").
The United States does not have a specific guideline for sentencing murderers, including serial killers. When a killer is apprehended, they will be charged with murder, and if convicted can get life in prison or receive the death penalty, depending on in which state the murders took place.
In most common law jurisdictions, an element of a crime is one of a set of facts that must all be proven to convict a defendant of a crime. Before a court finds a defendant guilty of a criminal offense, the prosecution must present evidence that, even when opposed by any evidence the defense may choose, is credible and sufficient to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed ...
When a defendant is sentenced to a prison sentence under one year, the default is suspension "if there are reasons to believe that the sentence itself will serve as sufficient warning to the convicted person". Courts can impose requirements on offenders (e.g. residency, non-contact, drug rehabilitation) as part of the suspended sentence, and ...
In May 2011, a U.S. Supreme Court upheld a decision against the state of California that required reducing the prison population to avoid overcrowding. A federal three-judge panel had ordered ...
Louisiana, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a jury must vote unanimously to convict in any criminal offense that requires a jury trial. Some jurisdictions permit the court to give the jury a so-called Allen charge , inviting the dissenting jurors to re-examine their opinions, as a last-ditch effort to prevent the jury from hanging.
The Dictionary of Politics: Selected American and Foreign Political and Legal Terms defines the term "Alford plea" as: "A plea under which a defendant may choose to plead guilty, not because of an admission to the crime, but because the prosecutor has sufficient evidence to place a charge and to obtain conviction in court. The plea is commonly ...
A death-qualified jury is a jury in a criminal law case in the United States in which the death penalty is a prospective sentence.Such a jury will be composed of jurors who: ...