The Courts
The Functions of American Courts
How to become a judge:
Functions of the Judge
The Prosecutorial System
Politics and Prosecution
Key Relationship of the Prosecutor
Ways of providing Indigents with Counsel
Courtroom Workgroup
Bail Agents:
The bail agent also known as the bail bondsman, is a key figure in the bail process
Bail agents are private businesspeople who are paid fees by defendants who lack the money to make bail
Bail agents are not obliged to provide bail money for every defendant who seeks to use their services
Setting Bail/ Reforming the Bail System
Release on Recognance
Preventive Detention
Trial: The Exceptional Case
Goals of Punishment
Adversarial Process : Court process, employed in the United States and other former British colonies, in which lawyers for each side represent their clients' best interests in presenting evidence and formulating arguments as a means to discover the truth and protect the rights of defendants
Inquisitorial Process : court process, employed in most countries of the world, in which the judge takes an active role in investigating the case and examining evidence by for example questioning witnesses.
When courts focus on criminal matters, through bail hearings, preliminary hearings, plea bargaining, and trials, they are serving a norm enforcement function for society
The judge is expected to embody justice, ensuring that the right to due process is upheld and that the defendant receives fair treatment
Negotiator: decisions that determine the fates of the defendants come about through negotiations between prosecutors and defense attorneys about plea bargains, sentencing, and bail conditions
The judge acts as a referee
In 12016 women comprised 31% of state judiciaries including 35% of judges on state appellate courts 30% on general jurisdiction trial courts, and 33% on limited jurisdiction courts
Adjudicator: Judges must assume a neutral stance in overseeing the contest between the prosecution and the defense
They must apply the law in ways that uphold the rights of the accused in decisions about detention, plea, trial, and sentence.
Administrators: In cities judges are in charge of their own court room and staff
In rural areas which do not usually employ professional court administrators the judges administrative tasks may expand to include managing labor relations, budgeting, as well as maintenance of the courthouse building.
The judge must deal with political actors such as county commissioners, legislators, and members of the state executive bureaucracy.
Five methods are used to select state trial court judges: partisan election, nonpartisan election, gubernatorial appointment, legislative selection, and merit selection
Partisan election: an election in which candidates openly affiliated with political parties are presented to voters for selection
Nonpartisan election: an election in which candidates’ party affiliations are not listed on the ballot
Merit selection: a reform plan by which judges are nominated by a committee and appointed by the governor for a given period. When the term expires voters
Prosecuting attorneys: a legal representative of the state with sole responsibility for bringing criminal charges. Depending on the state, this person is referred to as the district attorney, state’s attorney, commonwealth attorney or county attorney
The prosecuting attorney is known in various states as the district attorney, states attorney, commonwealth attorney, or county attorney who pursues cases that violate state law
United States attorneys: officials responsible for the prosecution of crimes that violate the laws of the united states. Appointed by the president and assigned to a U.S. district court jurisdiction
State attorney general: chief legal officer of a state, responsible for both civil and criminal matters
Every where in the U.S. prosecutors are elected usually for a four year term except for in Alaska, Connecticut, & New Jersey
The prosecutor decides which cases to prosecute, selects the charges to be brought, recommends the bail amount, approves agreements with the defendant, and urges the judge to impose a particular sentence
“The prosecutors dilemma”: conflicting pressures prosecutors face when pressing charges harshly against lawbreakers while also upholding justice and the rights of the accused
“Prosecutors bias aka prosecution complex”: prosecutors may view themselves as instruments of law enforcement, thus as advocates on behalf of the state, their strong desire to close each case with a conviction may keep them from recognizing unfair procedures or evidence of innocence
Trial counsel for the police: prosecutors who see this as their main function believe that they should reflect the views of law enforcement in the courtroom and take a crime fighter stance in public
Police, victims & witnesses, judges & courts, and the community
Police: Prosecutors depend on the police to provide both the suspects and the evidence needed to convict lawbreakers.
Prosecutors are not in command of the types of cases brought to them so the police control the initiation of the criminal justice process boy investigating crimes and arresting suspects
Victims and Witnesses: Prosecutors depend on the cooperation of victims and witnesses
Judges and Courts: Knowledge of and interactions with the judge can affect the prosecutors’ recommendations about and influence over sentencing
The Community: Public opinion and the media can play a crucial role in creating an environment that either supports or scrutinizes the prosecutor
There are three main ways of providing counsel to indigent defendants: (1) the assigned counsel system (2) the contract counsel system and (3) the public defender programs.
Assigned Counsel: This system is widely used in small cities and in rural areas, but even some city public defender systems assign counsel in some cases, such as those with multiple defendants where a conflict of interest might result if a public lawyer represented all of them
Contract System: To prevail in claims that their counsel has been ineffective, defendants must identify specific errors made by their attorneys that affected the result of their case and made the proceedings unfair
Public Defenders: This system is used in 43 of the 50 most populous counties & in most large cities
Experts and other often view the public defender system as better than the assigned counsel system, because public defenders, unlike appointed counsel and contract attorneys do not sacrifice their clients’ cases to protect their own financial interests
Local legal culture: norms shared by members of a short community as to how cases should be handled and how a participant should behave in the judicial process
Shared values and expectations of participants
“going rates”: local court officials’ shared view of the appropriate sentence for a given offense, the defendants prior record & other case characteristics
Work group: a collection of individuals who interact in the workplace on a continuing basis, share goals, develop norms regarding how activities should be carried out, and eventually establish a network of roles, all of which differentiate the group from others and facilitate cooperation
Retribution:
“Just deserts”
Deserves to be punished due to actions
Tenet of basic morality
You do something wrong, you should be punished
Deterrence:
Utilitarian
Make the punishment outweigh whatever benefit they may receive from committing crime
Keep people from committing crimes
Calculation of benefits vs. costs
Types of deterrence: general & specific
General deterrence is deterring others via the punishment of some or one. Its deterring the masses. Ex: if you drive past a billboard for drunk driving & see people in trouble you might think twice about drunk driving
Specific deterrence: deterrence of the one; the hope that the individual won’t do that action again. You make the punishment severe enough for that one person, so they think twice about their actions next time
Incapacitation:
Stops offender from acting again
Forward/future facing
Involves restriction of activity
Incarceration is our best example of something that is very incapacitated
Rehabilitation:
Restoring to constructive place in society
Focus on offender; not on the offense or the victim ( is the person better, have they changed )
Involves programming
Restorative: isn’t solely focused on the offender, but also looks at the damage thats been done to the community and trying to mend both of those
When the police set bail at the station house for minor offenses, they usually apply a standard amount for a particular charge. By contrast when a judge sets bail, the amount of bail and conditions of release result from interactions among the judge, prosecutor and defense attorney
The amount of bail may also reflect the defendants social class or even racial or ethnic discrimination by criminal justice officials
Criticisms of the bail system focus on judges’ discretion in setting bail amounts, the fact that the poor are deprived of their freedom while the affluent can afford bail, the negative aspects of bail agents and jail conditions for those detained while awaiting trial
Pioneered in the 1960s by the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City
Release on recognizance: pretrial release granted on the defendants promise to appear in court because the judge believes that the defendants ties to the community guarantee that he/she will appear
Preventive detention: holding a defendant for trial, based on a judges finding that if the defendant were released on bail, he or she would endanger the safety of any other person and the community or would flee
Critics of preventive detention argue that it violates the constitutions due process clause because the accused is held in custody until a verdict is rendered
The preventive detention provisions of the Bail Reform Act of 1984 were upheld in the United States v. Salerno and Cafero ( 1987 )
The United States v. Salerno and Cafero: preventive detention provisions of the Bail Reform Act of 1984 are upheld as a legitimate use of government power designed to prevent people from committing crimes while on bail
If cases are not dismissed or terminated through plea bargaining, they move forward for trial
Bench trial: trials conducted by a judge who acts as fact finder and determinate issues of law. No jury participates
Jury: a panel of citizens selected according to law and sworn to determine matters of fact in a criminal case and to deliver a verdict of guilty or not guilty
The trial process generally follows eight steps: (1) selection of the jury, (2) opening statements by prosecution and defense, (3) presentation of the prosecutions evidence and witnesses, (4) presentation of the defendants evidence and witnesses, (5) presentation of rebuttal witness, (6) closing arguments by each side, (7) instruction to the jury by the judge and (8) decision by the jury.