The United Kingdom's Court System
In the trial process in England and Wales is adversarial. In the magistrates' courts, magistrates determine guilt or innocence. In the Crown Court, a jury of twelve ordinary citizens will decide..
The prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The prosecutor will make his case first by calling and examining
witnesses. These are then cross-examined by the defence. The defence is not obliged to call evidence and the defendant is not
a compellable witness. Any witnesses called by the defence may be cross-examined by the prosecution. The court also has the
power to call any witness, other than the defendant. Generally, evidence is oral and given under oath to the court by the witness
concerned. However, documentary evidence is admissible in certain circumstances. Subject to exclusionary rules, all evidence
which is sufficiently relevant to the facts or issue is admissible.
After the prosecution and defence closing speeches in the Crown Court, the judge will give the jury directions on the law and a
summary of the evidence. He will then invite the jury to retire and to reach a unanimous verdict. The jury can be asked to give a
majority verdict (either 10-2 or 11-1) if they have considered the verdict for a reasonable time and cannot come to a
unanimous decision. The jury can be discharged from giving a verdict if they are unable to reach a majority decision. In these
circumstances, the prosecution has discretion to seek a re-trial.
F1 MAGISTRATES COURTS PROCEEDINGS
The procedure in the magistrates' court is primarily governed by the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980.
Commencement
Proceedings are either commenced by arrest, charge and production to the court, either on bail or in custody, or by the laying
of an information followed by the issue of a summons or a warrant. The information sets out details of the offence; where the
defendant is charged by the police the charge sheet forms the information. If the defendant is held in custody he/she must
appear before the magistrates' court as soon as practicable and in any event at the first sitting after being charged (thereafter he
can be remanded for up to four weeks at a time before attending court again). A defendant may be released on bail. The
granting of bail is governed by the Bail Act 1976 and the Bail (Amendment) Act 1993.
Court Procedure - Summary Offences.
The defendant is asked if he pleads guilty or not guilty.
1. One who has confessed a debt, or against whom judgment has been pronounced, shall have thirty days to pay it in. After that forcible seizure of his person is allowed. The creditor shall bring him before the magistrate. Unless he pays the amount of the judgment or some one in the presence of the magistrate interferes in his behalf as protector the creditor so shall take him home and fasten him in stocks or fetters. He shall fasten him with not less than fifteen pounds of weight or, if he choose, with more. If the prisoner choose, he may furnish his own food. If he does not, the creditor must give him a pound of meal daily; if he choose he may give him more.
Jurors will thoroughly inspect and weigh over the evidence provided, and process any and all possible scenarios through the elements of crime. If the evidence does not support the prosecutor 's argument and the elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt, the jury must pronounce the defendant not guilty. If questionable or irrelevant evidence is included in the criminal proceeding, it is the duty of the prosecutor or defendant 's counsel to object and insist that the evidence be excluded by the presiding
Conclusion: Congress hoped to achieve a greater degree of accuracy in assessing flight and danger of arrestees through establishing the Bail Reform Act of 1984, which set objective guidelines for judicial officers in assessing release conditions including taking into account for the first time the probability an offender will re-offend while on pretrial release. It was also hoped that the Act would bring back the community's trust in bond setting practice. Overall, the benefits of the Bail Reform Act of 1984 do exceed any detriments, but some problems do exist. These problems include the uniformity in the application of the Bail Reform Act of 1984, as well as the interpretation of dangerousness to the community. Through future legislative and executive reform, this Act will go through multiple changes until these issues are addressed.
In this essay I am going to discuss the magistrates and the crown court, and their function within the court hierarchy. The crown court is seen to deal with more serious offences referred to as indictable offences, which carry a higher sentence. Whereas the magistrates court deals with summary offences, carrying a lesser sentence than other courts in its division. Both courts are part of the criminal justice system, and deal with disputes between individuals and the state.
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’.
A jury is a panel of citizens, selected randomly from the electoral role, whose job it is to determine guilt or innocence based on the evidence presented. The Jury Act 1977 (NSW) stipulates the purpose of juries and some of the legal aspects, such as verdicts and the right of the defence and prosecution to challenge jurors. The jury system is able to reflect the moral and ethical standards of society as members of the community ultimately decide whether the person is guilty or innocent. The creation of the Jury Amendment Act 2006 (NSW) enabled the criminal trial process to better represent the standards of society as it allowed majority verdicts of 11-1 or 10-2, which also allowed the courts to be more resource efficient. Majority verdicts still ensure that a just outcome is reached as they are only used if there is a hung jury and there has been considerable deliberation. However, the role of the media is often criticized in relation to ensuring that the jurors remain unbiased as highlighted in the media article “Independent Juries” (SMH, 2001), and the wide reporting of R v Gittany 2013 supports the arguments raised in the media article. Hence, the jury system is moderately effective in reflecting the moral and ethical standards of society, as it resource efficient and achieves just outcomes, but the influence of the media reduces the effectiveness.
Introduction Empirical research consisting of simple observation of the day-to-day realities of criminal proceedings in the Downing Centre Local Courts, and the completion of systematic fieldwork notes intends to address the complex nature of justice. With specific regard to the operation of the local court system and its key players, the impact of the criminal justice system on those who are socioeconomically disadvantaged and particularly those without legal representation, and the issue of whether justice is achieved. The discussion of whether justice is achieved will draw upon the assertion of a post-adversarial justice posed by Freiberg (2011) and the concept of judgecraft considered by Mack & Anleu (2007).
Bail decisions invariably fall within the purview of the judiciary; judicial officers, also referred to as bail authorities, determine and decide pretrial release or pretrial detention. The twofold criteria for all forms of release on bail are flight risk and future dangerousness to society.
During this time, he prosecutor will call their witnesses to testify. The defense counsel will also be allowed to cross examine or question the witnesses as well. The preliminary hearing can sometime end the case before it goes to trial. If the magistrate finds probable cause then an information is filed with the court. Indictment or Information are the charging documents used to formally charge a defendant with a crime. The arraignment will be formal charges are read. The defendant is asked to state whether he is guilty, not guilty, or he can plead no contest. The case will then go to trial. The are two types of trials bench and jury. If defendant is charged with a serious offense which means he could serve six months or more imprisoned, then he is entitled to a jury trial by the sixth amendment. Then the trial has to be random selection of his peers. These individual must not know the defendant. If the defendant is found guilty. they will then be sentence by the court. The courts then found out if this is defendant’s first time or is the defendant a repeated offender. The defendant sentence to either jail, probation, fines, or the death sentence in some states. The defendant will complete their punishment for the crime and will be set back into the
Often this notice gets to the bonding company before the bench warrant becomes active. This can give the bond company’s agent a chance to notify you first, and then try to make contact with the person who is about to be labeled a fugitive from justice; adding another charge.
Next is the presentation of evidence. There are two types of evidence, direct and circumstantial. Direct evidence would be things like video recording of the crime. Circumstantial evidence would be something like a witness saw a man running with a gun, a ski mask, and a bag of money in hand, even though the witness didn’t see
When a person get arrested for the suspicion of being involved in committing a crime, He is taken to a law enforcement station where they are booked and arraigned for 24-48 hours. During all this time, the court judge figures out whether the bail can be can be subjected defendant and the amount of the bail be set. This decision depends on upon several factors such as the seriousness of the crime, the suspect's criminal records, and if the suspect poses a danger to society once released. The bail amount can be several hundred dollars, or it can go up to thousands of dollars for serious felonies. The suspect can be released from police custody if she or he pays the bail bond amount in cash or through property bonds. However, if the suspect cannot afford the bail amount, he/she can apply to a bail bonds service. The bail bonds company has a bail bonds attorney who processes the bail of the suspect. The company will post bail on behalf of the defendant. The bail bonds agent guarantees the full bail amount as an assurance that the defendant will appear in the court as promised.
Bail – “is a process by which you pay a set amount of money to obtain release from police custody.”
The court orders Jury Members to come to an unanimous decision for the guilty of the boy.
Chapter III: When and When not can Bail be granted; Chapter IV: Bail for Bailable offences