# Court sentencing question

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-sentencing-question/683070>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 7, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-sentencing-question/683070 "2014-03-07T01:15:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-sentencing-question/683070/1 "2014-03-07T01:15:33Z")

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After the judge hears any possible statement from the convicted…do they (the judge) ever ask any questions or say they’re going to take a recess to ponder?

Or do they pretty much have their minds made up going in and it doesn’t matter if Jesus came down to speak for the convicted that day?

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**Author:** ![Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jimmy\_Chitwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jimmy_Chitwood)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-sentencing-question/683070/2 "2014-03-07T01:20:18Z")

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Yes, sometimes they do.

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**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-sentencing-question/683070/3 "2014-03-07T02:39:29Z")

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Need answer fast?

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**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-sentencing-question/683070/4 "2014-03-07T04:53:11Z")

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Depending on jurisdiction and the applicable law,sentencing may be done forthwith or after a delay of months and after hearing evidence on particular issues.

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**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\
**Post date:** [March 7, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/court-sentencing-question/683070/5 "2014-03-07T05:00:13Z")

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I’ve represented hundreds of defendants at sentencing. In our jurisdiction, they delay sentencing to get pre-sentence reports from the State, the defense, and the probation department. They have a lot a material to ponder over, and plenty of time. I’ve never seen a judge take any extra time to ponder a defendants little speech. It is not unheard of for the judge to ask a few questions, but I’d estimate it’s less than 1/3 of the time.