In this process of mock trials I never believe that I could ever learn that I would be a great lawyer in my future. Our case went well, compared to how we believe it would go. Thought out the trial my team did not have confidence in ourselves and we believe that we could lose, we were correct. As the trial went on we got some confidence back. I think that in order to have a go trail you have to be confident in yourself or it will not go how you want. I learned many things during mock trials. I learn three very important things in our mock trials. First that I have the ability to speak in front of a group and not be afraid. When I was a witness and an attorney I had to speak in front of the class I was very worried because I don’t have much
Competence to stand trial. The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool- Criminal Adjudication is used to assess for competency to stand trial. The tool shows understanding, appreciation, and ability to reason (Acklin, 2012). Bobby showed ability to reason when he explained his life history; and gave example of how parents are to protect you not, hurt you. He understood that the abuse and neglect were not signs of protection from a parent. He realized his parents showed no sign of concern for him or his siblings well being.
Yet with the help of one aged yet wise and optimistic man he speaks his opinion, one that starts to not change however open the minds of the other eleven men on the jury. By doing this the man puts out a visual picture by verbally expressing the facts discussed during the trial, he uses props from the room and other items the he himself brought with him during the course of the trial. Once expressed the gentleman essentially demonstrate that perhaps this young man on trial May or may not be guilty. Which goes to show the lack of research, and misused information that was used in the benefit of the prosecution. For example when a certain factor was brought upon the trail; that being timing, whether or not it took the neighbor 15 seconds to run from his chair all the way to the door. By proving this right or wrong this man Juror #4 put on a demonstration, but first he made sure his notes were correct with the other 11 jurors. After it was
I believe that by identifying possible future events students will be able to think critically about the text. This will help the students to prepare for their future task of holding a mock trial for members of the community for The
The criminal justice system takes on a pivotal role in pursuing and preventing crimes in society. When a suspect is caught and then faced with charges for a violent crime, they legally have the right to a fair trial. In order for a criminal proceeding to successfully take place, the defendant must be fully aware of their surroundings, have a basic understanding of court procedures, as well as being capable of defending their one case. Competency to stand trial (CST) is essential for maintaining fairness in the courtroom and producing a just verdict. However, if a defendant is unable to understand legal proceedings due to mental illness or impairment, they must be thoroughly assessed and evaluated before declared incompetent to stand trial. Carrying out a case with a defendant who lacks mental capacity causes numerous issues because the individual is incapable of supplying their lawyers with information regarding their crime or any of the witness testimonies at trial. Lack of comprehensible communication between a defendant and attorney forces an ineffective defense in the case. Mental disturbances in the defendant that may cause disorderly conduct in the court room are considered disruptive and weaken the authority of the legal system. Supreme Court cases that have dealt with competency to stand trial issues over the years have made significant rulings, which have stressed the importance of identifying whether or not a defendant is in fact incompetent.
The stages of trial in the criminal justice system are not always as it is depicted in movies or television shows. According to the entertainment industry, there are two sides: good versus evil, and the story usually ends with an epic, jaw-dropping conclusion that finds the defendant guilty as in A Few Good Men. While that may be the case during some trials, the true beauty lies within the strategy of the prosecution and the defense. In fact, there is a distinct art that occurs at trial that takes a tremendous amount of preparation and knowledge to gain the upper hand. It is almost like a game of chess; each move most be well calculated and thought out because it can determine the outcome of the entire case. It is a mental battle between opposing counsels, where the one with the ability to think ahead often wins.
In Corsicana, Texas Cameron Willingham and his family’s home was burned down the twenty-third of December is 1991. According to the report Cameron was asleep when the fire started and survived the accident with only a few injuries, as for his children they were not so lucky, they lost their lives to the tragic accident. At the time of the accident Cameron’s wife was buying presents for their children for Christmas. According to a witness and her Daughter Diane and Buffie from a few houses down went outside and saw Cameron screaming, “My babies are burning up!” Diane and Cameron tried countless attempts to rescue the girls from their room until the fire department could get there. According to the New Yorker “The house, in short, had been deliberately transformed onto a death trap.” According to the reports on December twenty-fourth and twenty-seventh of 1991 the fire was declared arson and they later decided to conduct a criminal investigation. Cameron was questioned by the investigators on December 31st and was then later arrested on January 8th of 1992 for the death his three daughters.
Gary Leon Ridgway may not be a household name, but the infamous Green River Killer is one of the most accomplished serial murderers in U.S. history. In 2003, Ridgway confessed 48 accounts of aggravated first degree murder (more confirmed murders than any other American serial killer) during a two-and-a-half-year period in the early 1980s near Seattle, although it is believed he slaughtered even more. The majority of his victims were runaway teenage girls and hookers whom he picked up on the interstate and strangled to death. But Ridgway was spared the death penalty as part of a plea bargain three years ago, in exchange for his assistance in leading investigators to his victim's remains and revealing other information to help "bring closure" to the grieving families ("Green River Killer Avoids Death in Plea Deal").
Now that we have discussed the pretrial occurrences, we get into the trial portion of the court process. This is the portion of the process in which both the defense and the prosecution present their cases to the jury, the judge, and the rest of the courtroom. To select a jury, the bring in potential jurors and ask them questions,
Hoiberg, B., & Stires, L. (1973). The effect of several types of pretrial publicity on the guilt attributions of simulated jurors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 3(3), 267-275.
The criminal trial process is able to reflect the moral and ethical standards of society to a great extent. For the law to be effective, the criminal trial process must reflect what is accepted by society to be a breach of moral and ethical conduct and the extent to which protections are granted to the victims, the offenders and the community. For these reasons, the criminal trial process is effectively able to achieve this in the areas of the adversary system, the system of appeals, legal aid and the jury system.
...y’re dumb. Here is a quote from Mr. Michie before the trial was, “One of the things I’d tried to impress upon the kids throughout the year was the importance of speaking up intelligently about matters that concerned them.” (P.8). What he did to get rid of the thoughts was a court trial, to get everyone involved with the situations; he wanted his students to voiced their opinions about the cased that they felt strongly toward.
Our current trial by jury system was originally adopted from Anglo-Saxon English common law. Prior to juries, the United States had much more rudimentary methods that were in affect, such as bench trials. A bench trial consists of solely the judge determining the final verdict, versus a jury possessing that responsibility. Proceeding with a trial by jury assures that there will be a margin of error, simply due to the fact that the jurors are human, and are susceptible to human fallibility. Whether the jury is cognizant of it or not, emotions such as pre-determined bias and favoritism can impede or bring the case to a halt all together. According to Andy Leipold, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois College of Law, the number of jury trial conviction rates have increased from 75 percent in 1946 to 84 percent from 1989 to 2002 (Krause). This sudden anomaly can be attributed to the influx of uneducated jurors, the increased cost of proceeding to trial, and improper juror selection.
In the testimonies of Tom Sawyer and the Widow Douglas, I did not adequately ask and modify questions in response to the witnesses’ answers. For example, when the Widow Douglas did not give me the desired response to one of my questions, I simply moved on to the next question I had written on my list. Even though the information she gave was ultimately unimportant in the jury deliberation, I feel that I missed an opportunity to benefit my side’s argument. Likewise, in these two testimonies, I did not fully utilize my redirect examination questions. I simply asked questions that I felt I should have asked in the cross examination, and did not further expand on the witnesses’
Teen Court is a program that trains teens to act as attorneys for other teens that have admitted guilt to misdemeanor crimes. The program has 6 training session and the closer I got to finishing it the more I thought about dropping out. I had an interest in criminal justice, and there was no pressure to act as an attorney, but if I knew that if I finished the training I would fulfill the role of an attorney. After talking to my sister, I realized that I wanted to quit for all the wrong reasons, so I decided to push through my fear and become certified. Eventually, I gathered the nerves to take a case as a prosecution attorney in Teen Court. I spent hours preparing a speech and practicing my questioning, but on the day of the Trial, I was absolutely petrified. I was self-conscious about everything I did and to be honest, I did not do a particularly amazing job. What I achieved was more than that though; I broke out of my shell, faced my fear of public speaking, and saw that it was not as bad as I made it
Most countries in the world today do not use juries, and only a small percentage of cases in the United States are decided by juries. So it has been proven successful and holding trials without juries are certainly a possibility for our future. In may in fact be in society’s best interest to change or rather improve a system that is outdated and doesn’t always serve the people justice. A person has a right to choose between a jury of his peers of a bench (judge only) trial. It’s likely that citizens may prefer a jury trial as they may feel that pool of random citizens may be less critical or harsh than a judge, but in all honesty, if we’re talking about fairness, a judge who is an informed and trained professional definitely has a better idea of how to sentence a person on trial and looks at the evidence in a holistic way. A bench trial is better because it’s more efficient and cost-effective, judges are well-educated professionals, and juries may be biased or incompetent.