probation
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 302 U.S. 211 - Berman v. United States · 1937Most cited · 1,342 citing opinions
Probation is concerned with rehabilitation, not with the determination of guilt. It does not secure reconsideration of issues that have been determined or change the judgment that has been rendered. Probation or suspension of sentence comes as an act of grace to one convicted of a crime. The defendant stands convicted; he faces punishment, and cannot insist on terms or strike a bargain.
How the Supreme Court has restated “probation”
Each Supreme Court definition of “probation,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “probation”
Court decisions citing the 6 opinions that defined “probation” — 4,966 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 6 definitions, chronological · 1928–1943
- ORIGINAL
Probation is the attempted saving of a man who has taken one wrong step, and whom the judge thinks to be a brand who can be plucked from the burning at the time of the imposition of the sentence. The beginning of the service of the sentence in a criminal case ends the power of the court even in the same term to change it.
Probation is thus conferred as a privilege, and cannot be demanded as a right. It is a matter of favor, not of contract.
an act of grace to one convicted of a crime, which may be coupled with such conditions in respect of its duration as Congress may impose
Probation is a system of tutelage under the supervision and control of the court which has jurisdiction over the convicted defendant, has the record of his conviction and sentence, the records and reports as to his compliance with the conditions of his probation, and the aid of the local probation officer, under whose supervision the defendant is placed.
the basic purpose of probation, namely to provide an individualized program offering a young or unhardened offender an opportunity to rehabilitate himself without institutional confinement under the tutelage of a probation official and under the continuing power of the court to impose institutional punishment for his original offense in the event that he abuse this opportunity