Solved

You Have Graduated from Law School, Passed the Bar, and Opened

Question 72

Multiple Choice

You have graduated from law school, passed the bar, and opened your own law firm. The first phone call to your office comes from a mother begging you to handle an appeal for her son, who has been sentenced to life in prison under a "three strikes and you're out law." This law mandates a life sentence for any three criminal convictions. Your state has no death penalty, so this is the worst sentence that he can receive. You agree to hear the case and the mother says she will be there in ten minutes to hand you the file. You decide to use the ten minutes before her arrival researching Supreme Court case law in "three strikes" cases; in the process you envision possibilities of what this client might have done.
-You next wonder if the client has committed three violent felonies. Perhaps his last crime involved an armed robbery and kidnapping. If this were the case:


A) You have no relevant Supreme Court case law to turn to, and should tell the mother that there is nothing that can be done.
B) You really have little chance of winning an appeal, based on Supreme Court precedent from Ewing v. California, where an individual received life in prison when that was deemed "proportional" to his offenses
C) You can build a strong appeal around Solem v. Helm, where the Supreme Court vacated a life sentence for similar activity
D) You could use the Supreme Court's ruling in Atkins v. Virginia to set him free, as long as he is deemed competent to stand trial

Correct Answer:

verifed

Verified

Unlock this answer now
Get Access to more Verified Answers free of charge

Related Questions

Unlock this Answer For Free Now!

View this answer and more for free by performing one of the following actions

qr-code

Scan the QR code to install the App and get 2 free unlocks

upload documents

Unlock quizzes for free by uploading documents