...Provide an example of the exclusionary rule. A right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures is declared by the Fourth Amendment, but how one is to translate the guarantee into concrete terms is not specified. Several possible methods of enforcement have been suggested over time; however, the Supreme Court has settled, not without dissent, on only one as an effective means to make real the right. An example would be if a police officer stops a driver for speeding, and in the course of issuing the citation they discover cocaine in the glove compartment of the car. If the defendant did not consent to the search, and if the police did not have probable cause to believe illegal drugs could be found in the glove compartment, the search would be illegal under the Fourth Amendment. To invoke the exclusionary rule the defendant would move before trial to suppress the drugs as illegally seized. This motion would be decided by a judge sitting without a jury. The defense would have the burden of proving that the defendant's rights were violated. If the facts are disputed the parties would be allowed to call witnesses. If the accused testifies at the suppression hearing, this testimony is not admissible against him at a later trial. If the judge decides that the search was illegal, the exclusionary rule comes into play and the evidence will be suppressed in the pending case. In our example, the government has no case without the drugs, and the court would have to dismiss...
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...and negative aspects of each type of plea bargain. Purpose of Plea Bargains A plea bargain is an arrangement made for a criminal case in which the prosecution proposes a deal to the defendant in exchange for a guilty plea. A plea bargain allows individuals who have been accused of criminal activity the ability to dodge a possible conviction during a trial for a more serious charge. The prosecution will typically offer the defendant a sentence for a lesser charge, or the original charge will remain with an additional recommendation for a lighter sentence (Meyer & Grant, 2003). These types of incentives allow the courts to save time and money by settling cases quickly and effectively. Plea bargains are initiated by either the defense or prosecuting attorney. Both parties are involved throughout the process of negotiations. This process can either be speedy or consist of several lengthy meetings that involve changing the conditions of the plea agreement until an agreement is reached. The prosecution and defense must be in complete agreement regarding the conditions of the plea bargain before it can be submitted to the court for approval. Types of Plea Bargains There are two categories of plea bargaining: explicit plea bargaining and implicit plea bargaining. Explicit plea bargaining occurs when the prosecution offers to request that the defendant be charged with a lesser crime if the defendant agrees to plead guilty. Implicit plea bargains do not...
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...the system is still flawed (Schmalleger & Hall, 2010). This paper will examine how victimization affects each party: the prosecution, the defense , the offender, and the victim in the final stages of sentencing and imposing of sanctions. It will also discuss the sentencing and sanction goals from each perspective. Finally, this student’s victim’s rights ideas will be offered. Prosecution The prosecution has the difficult task of finding the truth even when it is messy and unpleasant. Once a conviction occurs, it then has the burden of seeking sentencing justice, following sentencing guidelines, considering alternative sanctions, and taking the victim’s wishes into consideration. Taking care to note all of these factors, prosecutors must look at the five common goals of a sentence: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, restoration, and incapacitation (Schmalleger & Hall, 2014). Under current guidelines, prosecutors have tremendous power in setting the tone for sentencing and can easily increase and decrease the sentences with the evidence presented in sentencing (Spohn, 2002). One task of the prosecution is also assisting the victim in penning a statement for the judge’s consideration. This allows the victim to participate in public confrontation, aiding in the therapeutic process of overcoming fears. In its sentencing requests, the prosecution carries the responsibility of mitigating as much of the...
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...proceeds against a person suspected of committing a crime. Examples of procedural law involve the right to counsel, right to appeal, trial by jury, and the right to face the accuser among others. The substantive law is the proscribed behaviors and the specified penalties. Some of the substantive laws are unlawful acts such as rape, robbery, and murder among others. When the government violates these rights, it has already violated the due process. The criminal law defines the rights, justice, and the punishment for the accused person. The law covers exclusively criminal acts. The most important thing about the criminal law is proving a crime. It must prove an individual is guilty of the accused crime beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecution should explain to the judge why the defendant should be punished (Norrie, 2014)....
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...For example, you may have been verbally abused by someone in the street because you’re disabled or someone thought you were gay.If you’ve experienced a hate incident or hate crime you can report it to the police. What are hate incidents? The police and Crown Prosecution Service have agreed a common definition of hate incidents. They say something is a hate incident if the victim or anyone else think it was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on one of the following things: * disability * race * religion * transgender identity * sexual orientation. This means that if you believe something is a hate incident it should be recorded as such by the person you are reporting it to. All police forces record hate incidents based on these five personal characteristics. Anyone can be the victim of a hate incident. For example, you may have been targeted because someone thought you were gay even though you’re not, or because you have a disabled child. Other personal characteristics Some police forces also record hate incidents based on other personal characteristics such as age. In particular, Greater Manchester Police now recognises alternative sub-culture hate incidents. These are incidents based on someone’s appearance and include Goths, Emos, Punks and other similar groups. This means they will also record any such incidents as a hate incident. What type of incidents can be a hate incident? Hate incidents can take many forms. Here are examples of hate...
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...Supreme Court of the United States, In the case of the Supreme Court of the United States, Michael D. Crawford v. Washington. Michael Crawford was tried for assault and attempted murder for stabbing a man who was named, Kenneth Lee. Crawford stabbed Lee at his apartment on on August 5,1999. Police arrested petitioner later that night. Crawford claimed he had acted in self-defense when he believed Lee had picked up a weapon. Lee denied doing anything that might make Crawford believe he was trying to attack him. Michael Crawford contended that Lee had attempted to rape his wife, Sylvia. The police arrested him for the stabbing, and after giving both Michael and his wife, Sylvia, Miranda warnings, they interrogated both husband and wife twice. The statement Michael challenged under the Confrontation Clause came from a tape recorded interrogation of Sylvia. In her second interrogation, she gave a version of the fight between Michael and the alleged victim that at least appeared inconsistent with her husband’s self-defense claim. Sylvia’s tape recorded statement was introduced at trial against Michael even though he had no opportunity for cross examination. In reviewing the statement’s admission by the trial court, the Washington Court of Appeals and Washington Supreme Court applied slightly different tests grounded in the framework described by...
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...Should the Exclusionary Rule be abolished? What alternative remedy would you favor to prevent police abuse? Is this debate now largely symbolic? Please discuss. The exclusionary rule is a legal principle in the United States, under constitutional law, which holds that evidence collected or analyzed in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights is sometimes inadmissible for a criminal prosecution in a court of law. This may be considered an example of a prophylactic rule formulated by the judiciary in order to protect a constitutional right. However, in some circumstances at least, the exclusionary rule may also be considered to follow directly from the constitutional language, such as the Fifth Amendment's command that no person "shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself" and that no person "shall be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law."(Calabresi, 2003) The exclusionary rule is grounded in the Fourth Amendment and it is intended to “secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”(U.S. Const.) The exclusionary rule is also designed to provide a remedy and disincentive, which is short of criminal prosecution in response to prosecutors and police who illegally...
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...Plea bargains are extraordinarily common in the American legal system, accounting for roughly 90% of all criminal cases. Many countries, however, do not allow plea bargains, considering them unethical and immoral. Below is a discussion about what plea bargains are, why we use them, and different types of plea bargains as well as what happens if both parties don't [Contractions are inappropriate in academic writing--write it out.] live up to the terms of a plea bargain (http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/plea-bargains-in-depth.html). [If this URL is in a citation, it should not appear here but rather on the references page.] Plea bargains are an agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and the defendant that usually involves the defendant pleading guilty in order to receive a lesser offense or sentence. Plea bargains are often referred to as really just establishing a "mutual acknowledgment" of the case's strengths and weaknesses, and don't [Write out contractions.] necessarily reflect a traditional sense of "justice". In theory, courts are happy to have the respective parties work out a solution by themselves, but it begs the question of who is best served by allowing plea bargains. A plea bargain is a contract between the defendant and the prosecutor. If either side fails to live up to its end of the agreement, the most likely remedy is to go to court to enforce the agreement. In particular, many plea bargains ask a defendant...
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...other in return for a guilty plea (Bikel, 2004). This permits those who have been suspected of serious criminal acts the opportunity to considerably lessen the charges and escape a more severe penalty. The prosecuting attorney will usually bargain this, or the initial charge will endure with a recommendation for a lighter punishment. With these forms of inducements, the courts save time and money swiftly and efficiently (Feješ, 2012). A plea bargain can be introduced by either the prosecuting or defense counsel with both sides negotiating throughout the process. This practice can be swift or entail numerous protracted conferences that encompass altering the provisions of the bargain until an agreement is attained. Both the prosecution and defense need to endorse the conditions of the plea bargain prior to its tender to the court of law. Plea deals are separated into two classifications: explicit plea bargaining and implicit plea bargaining (Schmalleger, 2012). Explicit plea bargaining...
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...Myia M. Hardy CJA/204 Introduction to Criminal Justice Instructor: Ron Furtado November 1, 2011 The criminal justice system is a set of legal and social institutions for enforcing the criminal law in accordance with a defined set of procedural rules and limitations. In the United States, there are separate federal, state, and military criminal justice systems; each state has separate systems for adults and juveniles. Criminal justice systems include several major subsystems, composed of one or more public institutions and their staffs: police and other law enforcement agencies; trial and appellate courts; prosecution and public defender offices; probation and parole agencies; custodial institutions ( jails, prisons, reformatories, halfway houses, etc.); and departments of corrections (responsible for some or all probation, parole, and custodial functions). Some jurisdictions also have a sentencing guidelines commission. Other important public and private actors in this system include: defendants; private defense attorneys; bail bondsmen; other private agencies providing assistance, supervision, or treatment of offenders; and victims and groups or officials representing or assisting them (e.g., crime victim compensation boards). In addition, there are numerous administrative agencies whose work includes criminal law enforcement (e.g., driver and vehicle licensing bureaus; agencies dealing with natural resources and taxation). Legislators and other elected officials...
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...appeal the courts decision. THEORIES OF LITIGATION: 1. TRIAL: The People sought to prosecute and punish DESORMEAUX for the conviction and punishment of both crimes in the same trial. (The legal theory that justifies the bringing of both the conviction and punishment is sought in the same trial. The opinion does not list two separate the two crimes, instead they are keeping them combined for one big punishment as opposed to two.) Because DESORMEAUX is appealing the courts ruling, we can assume that the basis and theory of his case is simply that he did not commit both crimes at the same time. At his trial this will be tried for separate punishments and not stand as one. 2. APPEAL: DESORMEAUX says that the state violated the multiple prosecutions and punishments in U.S.C.A. Const. Amend. 5; V.T.C.A., Penal Code § 22.04(h) for double jeopardy. HISTORY OF THE LITIGATION: 1. TRIAL: A criminal...
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...author and are not attributable to any government or organization. I INTRODUCTION With advances in technology, and the ease of global travel, the world we live in has become, in many ways, as Canadian author Marshall McLuhan predicted "a global village". This has had a dramatic impact on many aspects of life and society and law enforcement is no exception. The technological explosion and the growth of transnational organized crime and the response of the international community to it, has created many new challenges, not the least of which is the impact on the jobs of law enforcement authorities. In a 1989 case, United States of America v. Cotroni, the Supreme Court of Canada, made the following statement: The investigation, prosecution and suppression of crime for the protection of the citizen and the maintenance of peace and public order is an important goal of all organized societies. The pursuit of that goal cannot realistically be confined within national boundaries. That has long been the case, but it is increasingly evident today. The challenge for law enforcement authorities in every nation is that sovereignty, a fundamental principle which grounds the relations of states, is also a major tool in the armoury of the criminal element in our societies. Criminals depend heavily upon the barriers of sovereignty to shield themselves and evidence of their crimes from detection. Organizations which orchestrate transnational crime and which then disperse and conceal the...
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...Due Process Paper Cynthia Casillas CJA224 February 8, 2012 Carl Heintz Due Process Paper The establishment of the United States Constitution was a monumental time in countries history. Individual liberties and rights are the characteristics which identify America among the rest of the world. In addition, the rights and freedoms of the countries residents is equally if not more important. The legal system of the United States is based on an adversarial; meaning that event through legal prosecution, the individual rights of the defendant is still protected by the system. Due Process is a concept which applies to both the accused and the party which is against the accused. The adversarial system states that the battle throughout the case between the state and the defense, the truth will ultimately prevail and justice will be served. Although the result of the case will remain lawful, it’s important for the competition between the two parties to remain lawful as well. Furthermore, it’s very important for the constitutional rights of the defendant to remain intact throughout the entire criminal procedure process. Due Process and the Rights of the Accused: The Criminal Procedure Process There must be an individual who has sufficient evidence to present in court which establishes a crime was committed by the defendant, is in progress, or will take place before entering the criminal justice system. Without probable cause an arrest cannot be made, and crimes would go unsolved...
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...AJS/514 November 9, 2015 James L. Smith Crime Reduction and Prevention Proposal Chicago is a major city with a huge amount of crime and this paper will address crime reduction and prevention in this particular city. It will also address other issues such as; assisting victims, preventing crime, and achieving effective justice. This paper will address the effect that criminological theories and research have had on contemporary and historical crime control policies in Chicago. It will include theoretical rationale for the recommendations that are suggested. Chicago needs more help in these areas because of the amount of crime they are seeing. Victim assistance programs are well organized and widely available to the public of Chicago. The number of programs varies from domestic violence to identity theft. There are specific programs for every individual affected by crime. The Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has created and made the priority of victim assistance a key service to not only victims but to responder’s as well. In assuring that the right training is given to each field in order to assist victims appropriately. Programs and Trainings available to the people of Illinois According to the Attorney General • The Illinois Crime Victim Compensation Program (Direct financial assistance to innocent victims of violent crimes) • The Domestic Violence Fund (legal assistance funding, legal services to victims of domestic violence) • The Violent Crime Victim...
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...Should They Be Prosecuted? English Composition I June 3, 2012 What are the long-term effects on children who were drug exposed in utero? Are criminal charges for child abuse the best solution for pregnant mothers who use illicit drugs during pregnancy? This is a question that has become a hot topic and cause for controversy among the medical community, legal community, and society in general over the last 20 years. For example, South Carolina has defended their actions in the criminal convictions of women charged with child abuse for using drugs, such as crack cocaine, during pregnancy, while states like Wisconsin and South Dakota have taken less drastic measures. Almost all states agree that some sort of action needs to be taken to protect unborn children, but what those actions should be are widely varied and debated. Although personal feelings and emotions often lead us to immediately draw one conclusion; thorough research and doing what is best for women, children and their families are a strong argument for looking at other alternatives to this problem. South Carolina has long been at the forefront of the movement to criminalize prenatal substance abuse, using a broad range of laws to enforce a policy that began at one or two hospitals in the state and, over time, has expanded to a statewide initiative [Contemporary Women’s Issues] 1998. However, states such as Wisconsin are wrestling with when the criminal code comes into play. Currently, only South Carolina...
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