Summarize the limits on the rights of offenders at sentencing, and explain the reasons for the limits

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

When defendants become convicted offenders, they lose many safeguards they had
during the trial. Most of the procedural safeguards written into the Constitution were
originally intended to protect abuses of defendant's rights during the trial itself. Also,
giving too much attention to defendant's rights at sentencing would restrict the
flexibility judges need to impose the right sentence—one that would satisfy the
objectives of retribution and/or punishment.
Flexibility in sentencing allows trial judges to use information outside the official record
of a trial. Offenders have no right either to confront or to cross-examine people who
have supplied unfavorable sentencing information about them. Trial judges can also
consider the conduct of defendants during the trial.
Two rights defendants don't give up at sentencing are the right to counsel and the right
to equal protection of the law. The right to counsel assures that they will have
assistance in arguing for the appropriate sentence. Equal protection assures that
offenders are treated relatively equally. Thus, the court could not sentence an offender
too poor to pay a fine to prison while freeing those people able to pay the fine.