Origins of American Criminal Law

Assignment One.
Southworth, Shane, R
LEG 320 Udom, Udoh January 19, 2012

Origins of American Criminal Law.
The most important source of law is the United States Constitution. The United States Constitution is the foundation of both federal and state laws. The United States Constitution also protects us the people, particularly the first ten amendments known as the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights was ratified on December 15, 1791. One amendment that I feel is most relevant today in criminal law is Amendment VI Right to Speedy Trial, Confrontation of Witnesses. According to (Mount, 2011) Amendment VI states “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence”. Tom Head wrote (Head, 2012) “The "speedy trial" clause is intended to prevent long-term incarceration and detention without trial--which amounts to a prison sentence without a guilty verdict”. If you were to prolong a trial, over time evidence can become lost, witnesses could and would forget facts, and an innocent person could end up doing time for a crime he did not commit. It is in the best interest of both the prosecution and the defense to have a speedy trial so that the proper facts and evidence can stay fresh. The right to a public trial assures the defendant that a fair hearing can take place. Allowing the public to view a trial helps reduce the risk of an unfair or a bias trial. An impartial jury of the state would be a jury that is not bias and comes from the state and district of which the crime took place. Head (Head, 2012) stated “Not only must jury members not have improper biases before the trial begins, but they must also not be improperly prejudiced by the case or by media coverage of the case.” This is sometimes a challenge to overcome, if we look at the Casey Anthony trial in 2011, we would think that the jury would have known details of the case do to the media coverage it obtained in the years prior to the trial. The defendant should be informed of the nature and reason of the trial is very important, could you imagine a trial where you were the defendant and you had no idea why you were on trial? It is important to know what you’re accused of so you can properly prepare your defense. The defendant has a right to face his accuser or witness against him. Sometimes witnesses get their facts wrong, or misunderstood. The right to face your accuser can give the defendant the opportunity to set the facts straight, or in some cases for an eye witness to realize that they saw a different person. The right to have witnesses in the defendant’s favor has saved many innocent people from a wrongful guilty verdict. There have been many cases dropped just because the defendant can prove an alibi with a witness or two. Everyone has the right to have counsel or attorney during their trial, and if they are unable to afford an attorney that state will provide one to them. The sixth amendment has several rights of a defendant embedded into one amendment, these rights are important to ensure fair trials to all of us today. All State and Federal Courts follow the sixth amendment with great respect, and also with great respect to the other amendments that the United States Constitution brings to us.
The judicial system in the United States is a complex system serving over 300 million people in fifty states (Gardner & Anderson, 2011). The United States judicial system is also unique because it is actually made up of two different court systems: the federal court system and the state court systems. Each system is responsible for hearing certain types of cases, but neither is independent of the other system. Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts states why there are two court systems in the United States:
The U.S. Constitution created a governmental structure for the United States known as federalism. Federalism refers to a sharing of powers between the national government and the state governments. The Constitution gives certain powers to the federal government and reserves the rest for the states. Therefore, while the Constitution states that the federal government is supreme with regard to those powers expressly or implicitly delegated to it, the states remain supreme in matters reserved to them. This supremacy of each government in its own sphere is known as separate sovereignty, meaning each government is sovereign in its own right. Both the federal and state governments need their own court systems to apply and interpret their laws. Furthermore, both the federal and state constitutions attempt to do this by specifically spelling out the jurisdiction of their respective court systems. For example, since the Constitution gives Congress sole authority to make uniform laws concerning bankruptcies, a state court would lack jurisdiction in this matter. Likewise, since the Constitution does not give the federal government authority in most matters concerning the regulation of the family, a federal court would lack jurisdiction in a divorce case. This is why there are two separate court systems in America. The federal court system deals with issues of law relating to those powers expressly or implicitly granted to it by the U.S. Constitution, while the state court systems deal with issues of law relating to those matters that the U.S. Constitution did not give to the federal government or explicitly deny to the states. ("Understanding federal and," 2012).
Each state has the responsibility to maintain public order and security within their state, so this allows them to create criminal law under the police power of each state (Gardner & Anderson, 2011). The jurisdiction of state courts is mostly in case that does not fall into the jurisdiction of federal courts. State courts are common-law courts. Examples of cases within the jurisdiction of the state courts usually include cases involving the state constitution, state criminal offenses, tort and personal injury law, contract law, probate, family, sale of goods, corporations and business organization, election issues, municipal/zoning ordinances, traffic regulation, and real property ("Understanding federal and," 2012). The jurisdiction of the federal courts is spelled out in Article III, Section 2, of the United States Constitution. Federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction because they can hear only two main types of cases diversity of citizenship, and federal question ("Understanding federal and," 2012). Most people will ask “what is federal question?” federal question are cases like suites between states, cases involving ambassadors and other high-ranking public figures, bankruptcy, patent, copyright, and trademark cases, admiralty, antitrust, securities and banking regulation, federal crimes, and other cases specified by federal statute. Federal crimes are the cases that most people think of when they think of federal court. Federal crimes are such crimes like treason against the United States, piracy, counterfeiting, and crimes relating to the federal government 's authority to regulate interstate commerce. Both the state and federal court system together make up federalism, which has a clear purpose and goals for the American criminal justice system. According to Gardner & Anderson (2011) the United States criminal justice system’s four main goals are to discourage and deter people from committing crimes, protect society from dangerous and harmful people, punish people who have committed crimes, and to rehabilitate and reform people who have committed crimes. In order to discourage and to defer people from committing crimes we have to enact punishment that will, in and of themselves, prevent individuals from attempting criminal activity. In order to achieve deterrence a person that is thinking about committing will weigh the consequences out, and the punishment will outweigh the outcome of committing the crime. The next goal is protecting society from dangerous and harmful people this is done by incapacitating the dangerous and harmful criminals from society, thus by preventing them from committing further crimes. By the criminal justice system incapacitating criminals also serves as punishment for their crimes, as well as fines and probation. The rehabilitation and reform of criminals comes when they are incapacitated by offering them educational classes, drug addiction programs, along with other programs such as anger management classes so that the individual can better his life and have more options for a better life outside of criminal life. Our criminal justice program has been successful with many criminals but I believe it is still a working progress. I believe that or efforts towards deterrence needs to improve. In order for our criminal justice system to achieve its goals we must have a system in place to police our society. Each state has a duty to maintain public order and public safety within that state. To be able to do this each state enacts criminal law, a criminal justice system, and a police power of that state.” Police power: is the inherent power of each state and local government subject to constitutional limits, to enact criminal laws” (Gardner & Anderson, 2011). The laws enacted by the state must promote public health, safety, and welfare. The laws must not violate any of our United States Constitutional Rights.

References
Gardner, T., & Anderson, T. (2011). Criminal law:11 edition. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.
Mount, S. (2011, Febuary 23). The united states constitution. Retrieved from http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html
Head, T. (2012). The sixth amendment. Retrieved from http://civilliberty.about.com/od/lawenforcementterrorism/p/6th_amendment.htm
Federal Judiciary, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (2012). Understanding federal and state courts . Retrieved from website: http://www.uscourts.gov/EducationalResources/FederalCourtBasics/CourtStructure/UnderstandingFederalAndStateCourts.aspx

References: Gardner, T., & Anderson, T. (2011). Criminal law:11 edition. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning. Mount, S. (2011, Febuary 23). The united states constitution. Retrieved from http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html Head, T. (2012). The sixth amendment. Retrieved from http://civilliberty.about.com/od/lawenforcementterrorism/p/6th_amendment.htm Federal Judiciary, Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (2012). Understanding federal and state courts . Retrieved from website: http://www.uscourts.gov/EducationalResources/FederalCourtBasics/CourtStructure/UnderstandingFederalAndStateCourts.aspx