Issue No. 1: In the appeal you state you did not direct any vulgar or insolent language to SGT. Sandstrom. Response: During review of your disciplinary hearing regarding your 222 infraction you did admit to making the statements toward staff. Admittance of making these statements was one reason why the hearings officer concluded the guilty disposition.…
· Assess the past, present, and future impact that victim rights laws have on court proceedings.…
The court should appeal the incorrect actions taking by Prosecutor Forbes for removing the only two African-Americans from the jury stand. Prosecutor Forbes actions were a races act due to the fact, that all jurors should have the right to attend regardless of the race, nationality or gender. The only reason Forbes could remove the two African-Americans from the jury, is if both of the jurors were a close friend of the defendant Woodson. Then the prosecutor has the right to remove both jurors from the jury.…
3. A judge may decide that a case cannot continue on to trial because s/he believes there is no probable cause…
The Grand Prairie City Council approved attorney Bryan Arnold as presiding municipal court judge on March 1.…
The basic outline for competency to stand trial is for a person to be aware of the proceedings, know what they are being charged with, and the ability to interact with attorney to work on their own defense. This seem like a simple and easy task to take place, but each year numerous people are unaware of what is happening to them when they are arrested and brought in for initial hearing. Competency is something that can easily be missed if not addressed early on, once noticed the attorney or prosecution may ask for a competency evaluation. The judge holds the decision in his hand but once the issue of competency is raised it would be…
be searched, and the persons or things to be seized (Cornell University Law School, No Date).” The first part of this section states that no warrant will be given unless there is probable cause that will lead the judge or magistrate to believe that there is a very good reason to invade the privacy of a citizen. If there is not enough evidence for the judge to justify the signing of a search warrant, then the officer needs to try and find more evidence that will bolster his or her case.…
For a “brutal, cowardly attack” on a 27-year-old man, run over and left for dead, Agustin Caruso pleaded guilty to manslaughter Monday and was sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison.…
“From a moral standpoint it would be misguided to equate the failings of a minor with those of an adult.”-Justice Anthony Kennedy. In 1993, Christopher Simmons was sentenced to death when he was only 17. A series of appeals to state and federal courts were submitted but each appeal was rejected. Then, in 2002, The Missouri Supreme Court stayed Simmon’s execution while the U.S Supreme Court decided Atkins v. Virginia, where the U.S. Supreme court ruled that executing the mentally ill violated Eight and 14th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment because majority of Americans found it cruel and unusual, the Missouri Supreme Court started to reconsider Simmon’s case. Using the reasoning from this case, the Missouri court decided…
D. Graham Burnette gave fantastic insight into the logistics and feelings of a jury sentencing in his article, Anatomy of a Verdict. Throughout the article he explained just how hard it can be for a jury to sentence someone for a large crime. As he stated, a jury is something akin to, “foot soldiers of justice” (Burnette 2001), which conjures up the image of brave people going off to take on a daunting duty. In many ways, that’s exactly what it is for a real jury, no matter what the case. It can be emotionally, and sometimes physically draining to sit in a deliberations room for hours at a time, discussing at length a fellow human beings future.…
"All relevant evidence is admissible, except as otherwise provided." The goal of this rule is to allow parties to present all of the evidence that bears on the issue to be decided, and to keep out all evidence that is immaterial or that lacks Probative value. Evidence that is offered to help prove something that is not at issue is immaterial. For example, the fact that a defendant attends church every week is immaterial, and thus irrelevant, to a charge of running a red light. Probative value is a tendency to make the existence of any material fact more or less probable. For instance, evidence that a murder defendant ate spaghetti on the day of the murder would normally be irrelevant because people who eat spaghetti are not more or less likely to commit murder, as compared with other people. However, if spaghetti sauce were found at the murder scene, the fact that the defendant ate spaghetti that day would have probative value and thus would be relevant evidence…
Within the criminal trial process, natural tensions ordinarily occur between all participants and procedures of which the system operates, for example Investigation, Trial and Sentencing are three key processes within the criminal justice system that require an appropriate amount of discretion in order to properly and lawfully achieve justice.…
The responsibilities of a judge in the criminal justice process consist of a variety of duties; no court judge have just one duty or job to complete on a daily bases. Some of these duties include determining probable cause, signing warrants, informing suspects of their rights, setting and revoking bail, arraigning defendants, and accepting guilty pleas. When a judge is not in court, most of the time, they are negotiating dispositions with prosecutors and defense attorneys. The most important responsibility is to ensure suspects and defendants are treated fairly in compliance with Due Process of Law. In a jury trial the judge is responsible for allowing the jury a fair chance to reach a verdict. Before releasing them to deliberate or discuss…
the judge at trial must be allowed to have the power to engage in the decision making process of…
Federal Rule of Evidence 403 says, “The court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence” (2015). A defense attorney could utilize Motion in limine to request that the judge rule that certain testimony be excluded. The motion is always discussed outside the presence of the jury and is always decided by a judge. For example, after examining police reports and other documents it is detected that the crime scene was contaminated which could be argued that any DNA evidence taken from the scene is compromised and therefore any scientific evidence or expert opinions relating to this would be prejudicial. Another example could be that law enforcement did not procure proper search warrants before a search and seizure; therefore, all evidence gathered resulted in an improper discovery and should be excluded since it violates…
