I sat on the prosecutor's bench clutching my notebook full of poorly deciphered legal terms that my boss briefed me on prior to entering the courtroom. I nervously surveyed the atmosphere of the courtroom at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit, Michigan. I was an intern for an assistant prosecutor who worked in the sexual crimes unit. This unit was a difficult unit to be a part of. Every day a new series of sexual assault cases are presented, each with a new victim and perpetrator. That specific day, a young girl was the victim of an online dating app meet-up that went wrong.
Approximately twenty feet in front of me was a young man, not much older than myself, sitting in a chair facing the judge. Behind me, the family of the teenage girl who was the victim of a sexual assault. The victim and her family were hysterically crying as the prosecutor began to play a tape recording of the girl’s 911 call from the night of the assault. I sat in awe watching the way the prosecutor and the defense attorney interacted. My only purpose in the courtroom was to take notes and learn
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The exhilaration I felt from sitting on the prosecuting side. The faces of the family members who sat behind me, and the mixed emotions in the room when the judge announced a guilty verdict. That day reminds me of why I've been worked so many 70 hour work weeks. Why I've invested so much time and money into making sure I can afford to pay tuition, pay for rent, and go law school. I grew up in a family where money was scarce and we were expected to pay our own bills and school. None of my family members have attended law school, so this has been a new experience for my family. It has been tough, but it's allowed me to develop a strong work ethic that will be necessary to survive in law school and the courtroom. I believe that my experiences would make me a great candidate for the ________ Law
This case involves a sophomore at a high school named Christine Franklin, who alleged that she was sexually harassed and abused by a teacher and sports coach by the name of Andrew Hill. These allegations were occurring from 1986-1988, a total of two years. These allegations included Hill having explicit conversations with Franklin, forcing her to kiss him, and forceful intercourse on school grounds. Franklin claimed that she let teachers and administrators know about the harassment and that other students were going through the same harassment. The result of telling the teachers and administrators was that nothing was done about the situation and even encouraged Franklin not
Three rapes were reported in the 1983 in the state of Massachusetts. The first rape was reported on August 17, 1983 a women by the name of Marilyn Goss. She was raped by an intruder while she spent the night at the Casa Manor Motel in Ayer, Massachusetts (Stearns, 2006). On November 16, 1983 a woman was attacked while she was walking home in the city Lowell, MA. A man she did not know approached her, tried to converse with her, and then forced her into a nearby yard, where the man sexually assaulted her (Know the Cases: Dennis Maher). On November 17, 1983, about twenty four hours after the other attack in Lowell, MA, a different woman was harshly shoved to the ground by a man who produced a knife. The woman was luckily enough to escape the man after a struggle...
Bibbings , Lois , and Donald Nicolson. 2000. “General principles of criminal law'? A feminist
This event overall was very quality. They loaded the auditorium with people as a judge sat on the top of the stage. They escorted in a :criminal” in. Later we would learn he was a drunk driver. He had killed an innocent teen, and injured two others. The girls parents are testifying against him for the murder of their daughter.
... Cat. I am a cat. No. 4510.0, [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/Ausstats/subscriber.nsf/0/2EFA897EF863196CCA2575CA00146304/$File/45100_2008.pdf, [Accessed 13 April 2011]. Taylor, N 2007, ‘Juror attitudes and biases in sexual assault cases’, Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice, no. 1 (pp. 113-117).
Throughout history there have always been issues concerning judicial courts and proceedings: issues that include everything from the new democracy of Athens, Greece, to the controversial verdict in the Casey Anthony trial as well as the Trayvon Martin trial. One of the more recent and ever changing issues revolves around cameras being allowed and used inside courtrooms. It was stated in the Handbook of Court Administration and Management by Stephen W. Hays and Cole Blease Graham, Jr. that “the question of whether or not to allow cameras in American courtrooms has been debated for nearly fifty years by scholars, media representatives, concerned citizens, and others involved in the criminal justice system.” The negatives that can be attached to the presence of cameras inside a courtroom are just as present, if not more present, than the positives that go hand-in-hand with the presence of cameras.
Taylor-Thompson, K. (2006). GIRL TALK-EXAMINING RACIAL AND GENDER LINES IN JUVENILE JUSTICE. NEVADA LAW JOURNAL, 1137-1164.
It was a cold, damp morning, around three A.M., when the call came out. It seems there had been a rape and beating of a small child, about six years old. The detectives were called in from their homes, where they had been sleeping. The officers were tired, groggy, and mad as hell at what had happened to the little girl. This is an awful tragedy that occurs all too often. Stories, like the one I just described, are played out weekly on the television show Law and Order S.V.U., where actors, playing Detectives Benson and Stabler, are the ones answering such calls. Let’s take some time and compare this television show to every day life and see how close it comes to reality.
Neubauer, D., & Fradella, H. (2011). America's Court And The Criminal Justice System (11 ed.). Belmont, California: Wadsworth.
“In the criminal justice system, sexually based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit….” This short monologue is the opening for Dick Wolf’s fictional television show, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. This show follows the detectives of the Sixteenth Precinct in Manhattan, New York City through their lives and the cases they work day after day. In this unit, it is Detective Olivia Benson who has inspired me with her dedication and strength to her job and the real life connections that have been created from this character.
I wanted to look at the investigative and criminal procedures following the arrest of an alleged criminal and the powerful effects via testimonies and evidence (or lack thereof) it can have on a case.There is an importance of the courts in regards to crime that can’t be over looked. The primary function of the criminal justice system is to uphold the established laws, which define what we understand as deviant in this society.
Bonnie, S. F., Francis, T. C., & Michael, G. T. (2000) The sexual victimization of college women. U.S. Department of Justice.
Regan, P.C. & Baker, S.J. (1998). The impact of child witness demeanor on perceived credibility and trial outcome in sexual abuse cases. Journal of Family Violence, 13(2), 187-195.
Yet it is all the more important that they do so now. Prosecutorial power has increased as our criminal justice system has moved away from an adversarial system to one of negotiated pleas. Sentencing is more often than not dictated by mandatory minimums or guidelines calculations, which vests more power in the prosecutor through charging decisions. The traditional tools for checking prosecutorial abuse—judges and the juries—have a much smaller role in the process than they once did. Finally, remedial measures, like suits for damages, are all but nonexistent. As a delegate to the Constitutional Convention remarked: "The life of a citizen ought not to depend on the fiat of a single person. Prejudice, resentment, and partiality are among the weaknesses of human nature, and are apt to pervert the judgment of the greatest and best of men. But because the life or liberty of the accused now depends increasingly on the decisions of one person, the prosecutor's commitment to seeking justice is all the more important. Here, we try to identify what one facet of seeking justice means and then examine the somewhat more beguiling question of how it could be better sought (Don J. DeGabrielle & Eliot F. Turner, Spring 2013). With the existence of ethics in criminal justice, prosecutors should be aware that their ethical obligations can exceed their constitutional ones. The
My week started out with Janet informing me that she did not have any pc/bond cases for the next two days and not much for me to do (which was disappointing at first, as I thought she always had court cases). However, being a recent intern herself, she knew that I was going to be discouraged, she took it upon herself to find an interesting case that I could go watch and even introduced me to the prosecuting attorneys and the other victim advocate so they knew who I was and why I was there. I felt that this was a commendable thing for her to do; I appreciated the fact that she took the initiative and found something that might interest me. The case involved a man who was being tried for child molestation, which included rape and sodomy numerous times to both his step-daughter who was 6 and his biological daughter who was 4. The first day, I sat in on jury selection; this was interesting as I got to watch the attorney’s question 4 different pools of potential jurors. To make a long story short, it took most of the day for them to agree upon 12 jurors. The last part of the afternoon was spent on swearing in and opening statements. That night all I could do when I got home was think about the defendant and why he would do that to these little girls. It was difficult to shake the thoughts; I could see where this part of the job for a victim advocate would be challenging because it involved innocent children. The next day I was able to watch the mother of the children, the ex-girlfriend of the defendant, testify. This hour and a half long testimony and cross examination was sad, the woman cried several times on the stand, she trusted this man to care for her children, 2 of which were his while she worked 40+ hours a week to support the whole family. The defendant did not work for 2 years prior to this event unfolding, his job was to care for the couple’s children, of which also included two