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Module 3: Courts (Additional Vocabulary (Count - Each separate offense of…

- - - - State Cases: answering questions that deal with state or local laws
      - Federal Cases: answering questions that deal with federal laws as well as issues from state courts that have federal questions
      - State courts have the greater caseload because violations of state laws are more frequent than violations of federal laws
      - Both state and federal courts have supreme courts ("the court of last resort")
        
        John Roberts is the Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court
  - - - Largely Caucasian males
      - Federal Courts - 12% African American, 8% Hispanic, 2% Asian or Pacific Islander
      - State Courts - 7% African American, 4% Hispanic, 2% Asian or Pacific Islander, <1% Native American
    - - Adjudicator
        
        makes difficult decisions
        
        Vary between what is permitted into the court to whether a plea is reasonable to what the verdict may be
      - Negotiator
        
        Referee
      - Administrator
        
        Lead administrator of a specific court
    - - Partisan Election
        
        Affiliated with a political party
      - Nonpartisan Election
        
        Not affiliated with a political party
        
        May be registered as a Republican or Democrat
      - Merit Selection
        
        Nominated by committee; appointed by governor for a term
        
        At expiration of term, retention election
        
        Not running against anyone else
        
        If not re-elected, new nomination by committee
- - - - Local prosecuting attorneys
      - State attorney general
      - US attorneys
    - - Trial counsel for police
      - House counsel for police
      - Representative of the court
        
        Doesn't necessarily represent the victim but represents the community/city as a whole
      - Elected official
    - - Police
      - Victims
      - Judges/courts
      - Coummunity
      - Defense attorneys
        
        Fairly good working relationship as well as personal realtionship
        
        People who have different tasks to preform within the system
        
        Example: Fast food - the people in the kitchen and the cashiers are doing different jobs but they have to work together to get anything done
  - - - The sentencing aka proposed punishment
      - The charges involved
    - - the day before the trial, usually some sort of agreement is reached, or the plea is taken
  - - - Assigned
        
        Roaster of lawyers who are willing to take on this role
      - Public defender
        
        Government funded defense
      - Contract
        
        Certain firms/lawyers contract that they will take a certain number of cases
  - - - Shared values and expectations of participants
        
        "going rates"
      - Consistency
- - - - Boykin v. Alabama: voluntary
        
        Boykin form - checklist with signature that ensures that the individual going through the process understands what they are being charges with and that pleading guilty is voluntary
      - Missouri v. Frye
        
        Must inform of plea - ineffective counsel (6th amendment
      - North Carolina v. Alford
        
        Alford Plea - taking the plea (taking the punishment) but don't admit guilt for the crime
    - - "implicit plea bargaining"
      - evidence is strong
      - no question of fact
      - Agreement on appropriate charge, evidence, punishment
    - - Negotiation process
        
        Multiple offense and level of offense
      - Threat of jury trial
      - Delay
        
        "if I delay this case long enough, will the witnesses still want to come forth?"
  - - - Judge is fact finder and determines issues of law
        
        The impartial person - weighing the law higher than the emotional stance of the case
      - Emotional or legally difficult cases
    - - 14 total people on the jury but only 12 are active
    - - Jury selection
      - Opening statements
      - Presentations of evidence
      - Rebuttal
      - Closing arguements
      - Instructions to jury
      - Deliberation decision
    - - Direct evidence
        
        Eyewitness accounts and testimonies
      - Circumstantial evidence
      - Demonstrative evidence
        
        Weapons, diagrams, fingerprints
  - - - not a question of guilt/innocence
    - - Acquittal - a judgment that a person is not guilty of the crime with which the person has been charged.
    - - Whether lawfully detained, if claim of constitutional rights violation
- - - - punishment inflicted on a person who has harmed others and so deserves to be penalized
    - - punishment of criminals that is intended to be an example to the general public and to discourage the commission of offenses
    - - punishment inflicted on criminals to discourage them from committing future crimes
    - - depriving an offender of the ability to commit crimes against society, usually by detaining the offender in prison
    - - making the best use of expensive and limited prison space by targeting for incarceration those individuals whose incapacitation will do the most to reduce crime in society
    - - the goal of restoring a convicted offender to a constructive place in society through some form of vocational or educational training or therapy
    - - punishment designed to repair the damage done to the victim and community by an offender's criminal act
  - - - Presumptive Sentence - sentence for which the legislature or a commission sets a minimum and a maximum range of months or years. Judges are to fix the length of the sentence within that range, allowing for special circumstances
      - Earned Time - reduction in a prisoner's sentence as a reward for participation in educational or other rehabilitation programs and for work assignments such as disaster relief and conservation projects
      - Determinate Sentences - a sentence that fixes the term of imprisonment at a specific period
      - Mandatory Sentences - sentence determined by statutes and requiring that a certain penalty be imposed and carried out for convicted offenders who meet certain criteria
      - Indeterminate Sentences - period set by a judge that specifies a minimum and a maximum time to be served in prison. Sometimes after the minimum, the offender may be eligible for parole
      - Good Time - reduction of an inmate's prison sentence, at the discretion of the prison administrator, for good behavior or participation in vocational, educational, or treatment programs
      - Truth in Sentencing - refers to laws that require offenders to serve a substantial proportion of their prison sentence before being released on parole
    - - variety of punishments that are more restrictive than traditional probation but less severe and less costly than incarceration
      - Based of off
        
        1) Severity of the offense
        
        2) the characteristics of the offender
        
        3) the needs of the community
    - - a sentence that the offender is allowed to serve under supervision in the community
      - Shock Probation - a sentence in which the offender is released after a short incarceration and re-sentenced to probation
    - - death penalty
  - - - Misdemeanor Court: Assembly-Line Justice
      - Felony Courts
    - - Blameworthiness
      - Protection of the community
      - Practical implications of the sentence
    - - report prepared by a probation officer, that presents a convicted offender's background and is used by the judge in selecting an appropriate sentence
    - - mechanism to indicate to judges the expected sanction for certain offenses, in order to reduce disparities in sentencing