Court Reflection

1166 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Roles and responsibilities of a judge

On Tuesday, October 6th I arrived at the Saginaw County Court House, 70th District Court for my Introduction to Criminal Justice class. District Courts resolve disputes by determining the facts and applying legal principles to decide who is right. Trial Courts include the District Judge who tries the case and a jury that decides the case. Magistrate Judges assist District Judges in preparing cases for trial. Magistrate Judges may also conduct trials in misdemeanor cases. I arrived at the Saginaw County Court house on Tuesday the 6th to sit in District Court with the Honorable Judge. Terry L. Clark. This is also the first day I have been to court and decided to sit in on District Court. As I walked in to the court office the first place I walked was up to the third floor and made my way to the courtroom of Judge Terry Clark, where he was doing arraignments, which takes place before any suppression hearings and the trial itself. It is the defendant 's right to know the charges against him or her. It is also the defendant 's …show more content…

If you plead guilty to a criminal offence it means you accept that you committed the offense and will accept the facts as alleged by the police or other prosecuting body. If you plead not guilty it means that you deny committing the offense. This may mean that you are not sure if you have committed the offense and you wish the court to hear evidence to decide whether you are guilty or not. After you plead guilty or not guilty you have to decide whether you want a bench trial or a jury trial. A bench trial takes place in front of a Judge only, there is no jury involved. The Judge is both the finder of fact and ruler on matters of law and procedure. This means that the Judge decides the verdict. A Jury trial is a legal proceeding in which a Jury either makes a decision or makes findings of fact, which then direct the actions of a

Show More
Related

  • Australia's Unfair Legal System

    821 Words  | 2 Pages

    They weigh the evidence and apply the law. In the court system, criminal law is interpreted by a jury who are seen as expressing the sense of justice of ordinary men and women. Juries date back to the Middle Ages in England, and while membership, role, and importance have changed throughout the ages, they were part of the system of England’s Common Law. The purpose of the jury system was to ensure the civil rights of the ordinary citizen. It is important to remember that at the time, ordinary people had few rights.

    Read More

  • The History of Juries

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the United States, jury trials are an important part of our court system. We rely heavily on the jury to decide the fate of the accused. We don’t give a second thought to having a jury trial now, but they were not always the ‘norm’.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Court Observation

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    For the court observation assignment, I visited the Tolland County Courthouse. I went to court on Tuesday April 4th, 2017 from 11am to 12:30pm. The matters I observed in the courtroom regarded a restraining order from an ex-girlfriend to her ex-boyfriend. The details involved in the case included the welfare of their three-month-old baby and the custody battle.

    Read More

  • Essay On Courtroom Workgroup

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    The judges that are a part of this group has many different roles, some of which are to issues warrants, making a determination of probable cause in evidence, denying or granting bail to offenders, overseeing trials, making rulings on different motions and even overseeing hearings. The prosecuting attorney is the one who will represent that state in c...

    Read More

  • Essay On The Court System

    1988 Words  | 4 Pages

    Now, the district court system is the beginning step of the judicial system. A good amount of the case handled by the district court system is either criminal or civil trial cases. According to Roger Miller, “trial courts that have general jurisdiction as to the subject matter may be called county, district, superior, or circuit courts.” The majority of their cases are to be handled in-county first before proceeding further through the court system. Just as businesses and organizations have a chain-of-command or protocol system the government has the

    Read More

  • The Criminal Trial Process

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    They are the impartial third-party whose responsibility is to deliver a verdict for the accused based on the evidence presented during trial. They balance the rights of society to a great extent as members of the community are involved. This links the legal system with the community and ensures that the system is operating fairly and reflecting the standards and values of society. A trial by jury also ensures the victim’s rights to a fair trial. However, they do not balance the rights of the offender as they can be biased or not under. In the News.com.au article ‘Judge or jury? Your life depends on this decision’ (14 November 2013), Ian Lloyd, QC, revealed that “juries are swayed by many different factors.” These factors include race, ethnicity, physical appearance and religious beliefs. A recent study also found that juries are influenced by where the accused sits in the courtroom. They found that a jury is most likely to give a “guilty” verdict if the accused sits behind a glass dock (ABC News, 5 November 2014). Juries also tend to be influenced by their emotions; hence preventing them from having an objective view. According to the Sydney Morning Herald article ‘Court verdicts: More found innocent if no jury involved’ (23 November 2013), 55.4 per cent of defendants in judge-alone trials were acquitted of all charges compared with 29 per cent in jury trials between 1993 and 2011. Professor Mark Findlay from the University of Sydney said that this is because “judges were less likely to be guided by their emotions.” Juries balance the rights of victims and society to a great extent. However, they are ineffective in balancing the rights of the offender as juries can be biased which violate the offender’s rights to have a fair

    Read More

  • Jury Duty Reflection Paper

    1518 Words  | 4 Pages

    During my visit to the Lafourche Parish District Attorney 's Office, I heard a copious amount of information that proved to be interesting, surprising, and some of it familiar to what I already knew or had learned in class. The first speaker, Joe Soignet, assistant district attorney, gave me a sense of what actually happens in a court case, specifically the process of selecting a jury. I had an idea of how picking a jury goes because of stories from friends and family who had been called for jury duty. I knew from them that as long as you answer with very strong opinions you can get out of jury duty. What I learned in class, however, is that picking a jury can take a long time, the right to a jury trial is guaranteed by the 17th Amendment and

    Read More

  • The United States Department of Justice Analysis

    1491 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first type of a federal court is District Courts and every state has at least one federal district court ("Federal Courts"). District courts are the overall trial courts in the federal court system. In each district court, there is at least one United States District Judge that was appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate for a life term. District courts deal with both civil and criminal trials (“ The United States Department of Justice - United States Attorney's Office”). An example of a civil trial is if a person is suing the government or an agent of the government because the person violated the rights granted to a person within the Constitution. Criminal trial is a case that one breaks a federal law and they get arrested (“The Judicial Learning Center”). According to Government by the People, in 2009, there were more than 275,000 civil cases and more than 75,000 criminal cases. District court judges ar...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of My Cousin Vinny

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    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,

    Read More

  • The Issue of Pretrial Publicity

    1935 Words  | 4 Pages

    The issue of pretrial publicity is a maze of overlapping attentions and interwoven interests. Lawyers decry pretrial publicity while simultaneously raising their own career stock and hourly fee by accumulating more if it. The media both perpetrate and comment on the frenzy -- newspapers and television stations generate the publicity in the first place and then actively comment on the likely effect that the coverage will have on the trial. When a high profile case is brought to trial, many media outlets report not only on the details of the trial, but also details about the persons involved, in particular the defendant. Much of the information reported regarding the case is released before the trial starts. Furthermore, media outlets may not only report facts, but also present the information in a way that projects the culpability of the defendant. By allowing pretrial publicity of court cases, potential jurors are given information that could sway their opinion of the defendant even before the trial begins, and how they interpret the evidence given during the trial. The right of a criminal defendant to receive a fair trial is guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The right of the press, print and electronic media, to publish information about the defendant and the alleged criminal acts is guaranteed by the First Amendment. These two constitutional safeguards come into conflict when pretrial publicity threatens to deprive the defendant of an impartial jury. However, there is a compromise between these two Constitutional rights, which would allow for the selection of an impartial jury and allow the media to report on the details of the case. The media should only be able to report information once the trial has...

    Read More

  • paper

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    The court system is composed of lawyers, judges, and juries. Their job is to ensure that everyone receives a fair trial, determine guilt or innocence, and apply sentences to guilty parties. The court system will contain one judge, and a jury of twelve citizens. The jury of the court will determine the guilt or innocence of the individual. The jury will also recommend a sentence for the crime the individual committed.

    Read More

  • Court Room Observation Paper

    3274 Words  | 7 Pages

    The courts have the function of giving the public a chance to present themselves whether to prosecute or defend themselves if any disputes against them rise. It is known to everyone that a court is a place where disputes can be settled while using the right and proper procedures. In the Criminal court is the luxury of going through a tedious process of breaking a law. Once you have been arrested and have to go to court because of the arrest, you now have a criminal case appointed against you. The court is also the place where a just, fair and unbiased trial can be heard so that it would not cause any disadvantage to either of the party involved in the dispute. The parties are given a chance to represent themselves or to choose to have a legal representative, which is mostly preferred by many.

    Read More

  • Reflection Paper On Court Experience

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    The judge was a middle-aged male who looked intimidating and seemed to be well respected. To my surprise, we did not have to stand up when he entered the room. After the judge came out I assumed the jury would follow quickly after. However I quickly learned that there would be no jury for this particular trial. After a few minutes, the handcuffed defendant entered the room wearing an orange prison jumpsuit. He was a middle-aged, African-American male who was involved in a narcotic conspiracy case. In addition to the defendant a probation officer, the prosecutor and the defendant’s lawyer were also present. Aside from me, my classmate and a student from Georgetown the defendant’s wife and sister were in the

    Read More

  • Video Game Reflection

    719 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ever since I was little I remember playing games where I would fight the bad guy and win the girl in the end. This never seem to affect me or make me wonder what small effect it had on my thought process. In games such as Zelda, call of duty, assassin creed, gears of war, Mario, and even halo you play as a white heterosexual male. The idea of playing this way never seemed to phase me as a young child. As I grew up and became more aware of the difference of people and the need for other as well as myself a need to be able to connect and find one 's self in different place such as games, movies, and TV shows. I became aware of the one sided views that video games seem to have. Then I realized that it was seen as acceptable to only have the one sided displayed due to the lack of speaking out on the need for change.

    Read More

  • Court Reflection Paper

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    At first, I expected the courtroom to be big and full of people. But as I entered to the courtroom it was much smaller than I thought. However, I ended up sitting in front of the defendant’s family, which made me a little uncomfortable. This was especially because there were no other spectators in the room, there was about one column empty. The bailiff of the court that was outside the courtroom was really helpful since he notified me when I could enter and even let me enter 10 minutes before the trial started. That 's when my classmate and I met the judge. The judge, Marysol Rosero was very friendly and even bothered to share some information about her background and how she became a judge. I was surprised that she was so kind, diligent, and friendly because I visualized judges to be really serious. However, once the trial begun she was dedicated, attentive, and professional which I was relieved to see. The judge showed to have things well under control in

    Read More

More about Court Reflection

Open Document