Running Head: The Pre Trial Process After a suspect is arrested and officially charged with a crime‚ he or she becomes a criminal defendant (Zalman‚ 2008). This step is significant in the criminal justice process because it brings several new sets of rules into play related to the defendant’s trial. Before a criminal defendant can be tried however‚ a number of milestones must be met and several obligatory processes must be completed. These procedures are designed to ensure that a fair trial
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Eliminating the Death Penalty The Death Penalty has been debated for many years and even though the Eight Amendment of the Bill of Rights abolished any cruel and unusual punishment in 1789‚ it continues to be viewed as an acceptable form of punishment. California is the state that has the most people under death row‚ but California also performs very few executions‚ from 1978 to 2009 only 13 were preformed (Colon‚ 2009). California does not need the capital punishment‚ and has attempted eliminating
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AbstractCrime has been around since the beginning of time. It started with Adam and Eve who ate the apple after God told them they were to stay away from the tree. Nothing has changed since then except that crimes have become more severe and sadly‚ children have started doing some of that crime. Like adults‚ when juveniles commit a crime and are caught‚ there must be punishment for it. Depending on the severity of the crime that juvenile may be brought to a juvenile court and if the crime is more
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by Eisenstein and Jacob in 1977 to explain their observations of the ways courts‚ especially lower level courts‚ actually come to decisions. ("Courtroom Workgroup"‚ n.d.) How Does It Work The courtroom workgroup is a mechanism for prosecutorial discretion. Various techniques are used to convince the defendant that the evidence against him or her is overwhelming. “Charge stacking” is a process by which police and prosecutors create case with numerous charges or numerous instances of the same
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However‚ this system has been criticized for allowing prosecutors too much discretion compared with judges‚ who are held to concise sentencing guidelines (Burke‚ 2007; Finkelstein‚ 1975; Ma‚ 2002). Prosecutors have been found to use threats that coerce defendants into accepting pleas to secure a conviction when the evidence in a case is insubstantial (Finkelstein‚ 1975). Moreover‚ several researchers have noted that prosecutorial biases can influence the plea bargaining process‚ because prosecutors are
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The Canadian Law Dictionary (2013) defines “plea bargaining” as “an informal practice where the accused uses his or her right both to plead guilty in order to bargain for a benefit that is usually related to a charge or the sentence”. A plea bargain is the most common method used in the disposition of criminal cases and makes up 95% of cases in Canada (Barbara‚ Morrison‚ and Cunningham‚ 1976) and usually consists of an agreement with the Crown prosecutor to make an alliance to get the judge to make
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1 .Explain how "the desire to win" can lead a prosecutor to pursue a case that should be dropped or choose to not disclose evidence that would exonerate a defendant. How does the organizational/occupational culture affect their motivations? The prosecutor’s interest in the prosecution is to win‚ and for the unscrupulous‚ unethical prosecutor to win regardless of the guilt or innocence of the accused. The prosecutor’s career path could be injured by failing to win‚ showing the lack of skill as a
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The Just and Fairness of the Death Penalty Lori Pope PHI 103 Daniel Haynes November 9‚ 2011 Is the death penalty just and applied fairly? One of the great debates of our time is the legality and use of the death penalty. The death penalty is something that many people do not have a clear decision on. Some insist that the death penalty acts to deter a capital crime‚ while others feel that it has not effect whether a capital crime is still committed. My personal look at the death penalty
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my thoughts on the three strikes laws‚ requirements‚ and the Ewing v. California case as it pertains to the three strikes law. Next‚ a few thoughts on how the public feels about crimes‚ both violent and non-violent‚ mandatory sentencing‚ and the discretion that prosecutors have during the sentencing process‚ will be discussed in detail. Following will be my thoughts regarding the scenario for reelection and how it pertains to the legal system today‚ along with developing a policy describing alternatives
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choices as we all do. I will talk about articles I’ve researched that show Prosecutorial misconduct‚ Ineffective assistance by criminal defense counsel‚ and Judicial misconduct. There was an article in CNN Justice that talked about California Prosecutors that committed over 130 instances of misconduct in 2010. The Article does not focus on one particular case it is focused on shedding light on many cases and prosecutorial misconduct that not only occurs here in the state of California but all over
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