Essay on Courtroom Procedures and the Role of the Prosecution

A panel of jurors must be selected to appear before the court (usually about 50 or so persons strong) from which the array (final jury number) is to be selected.

I attended the District Court at 201 West Picacho Ave on March 7, 2011. I sat in on judge Mike Murphy's court. Judge Murphy started court promptly at 9:00 a.m. but before I got into the court I had to wait in a long line of about 30 people. then when I finally got to the court house door I had to go through a metal detector where I had to take off my belt and shoes and everything metal on my persons. Then I asked one of the officers working the metal dictator how I could ask to sit in on a criminal court that was going on this morning. She then directed me to court room four. I asked the bailiff if it was ok for me to sit in on court today for my criminal justice class, and if the case where criminal matters. The bailiff then told me that

For those who do make it to trial a crucial step to having a fair trial is to have an unbiased jury, before the trial begins the prosecutor, judge, and defense attorney interview members of the jury pool in a process called voir dire. During voir dire the attorneys are given an unlimited amount of challenges for cause, which helps eliminate people who show a bias for one side or the other, for example the defendant’s sibling would not be allowed to serve on the jury because they are too closely related and would have a

During jury selection, potential jurors are interviewed then chosen or eliminated from the jury. The initial selection of potential jurors is completely random; citizens get “jury Duty” notices on a random basis. The screening of the jury selection is conducted by both the prosecution and the defense, and is overviewed by the judge on the case. During the interview, citizens are asked a number of strategic questions to ensure that they are not in any way bias for or against the defendant or case. The questions also eliminate those who have any connection to the case, in any way. It is during this interview that the lawyers on the case can voice their concerns regarding biased jurors.

In the American Criminal Justice System, there are four key attributes in the role of the prosecutor. There are discretion, resource dependence, sequential tasks, and filtering. The prosecutors are lawyers that are accountable for presenting criminal cases in trial. The United States Attorneys are pointed by state or government, and represent the federal government in courts. They prosecute all adults who commit felonies and juveniles who commit delinquent crimes. Conjointly, the prosecutors have further responsibilities, such as legal adviser of the country commissioners, the Board of Elections, and written admonition of the prosecutors.

Often, forty or fifty people will be summoned for a 12 person jury. The process of selecting who will make up the jury is called voir dire, which involves getting rid of potential jurors who would not be fair or impartial. Prosecutors and defense attorneys can strike for cause a potential juror for several reasons, such as bias or prejudice, an unlimited number of times. They also have a limited number of peremptory challenges, which allows them to get rid of a juror without needing to have a valid reason to do so. Once all challenges the attorneys can utilize have been exhausted, the judge will assemble the petit jury and will generally select alternate jurors as

The first phase of a criminal jury trial is focused on selecting specific jurors, which is accomplished through a process referred to as 'voir dire' which is a screening of potential jurors. In the criminal trial involving an offense categorized as a felony "12 jurors and up to six alternate jurors may be chosen." (3rd Judicial District, ) Voir dire of the jury involves the prosecuting and defense attorneys questioning the potential jurors and

A jury trial is made up of twelve citizens of the community who have been randomly selected to serve on the jury. The jury had been given the authority to judge the facts of the case, and them apply the law that was given by the judge to those facts, and render a verdict of guilty or not guilty.

Since there are more individuals than needed for the trial, there has to be a process of elimination (Hall, 2015). There are cases when some potential jurors cannot attend a trial. If someone is taking care of a family member that needs them or has issues that are present beyond their control, a judge will normally excuse them for from the trial altogether (Streicker, 2017). In challenged for cause, a juror can be eliminated because he or she is considered not to be fair and impartial. Anyone who is bias can also expect to be a part of the removal. In the “challenged for cause” category, the amount of jurors that needs to be excluded for cause can be unrestricted. Upon approval from the judge, the jurors will in fact removed from the list of jurors. When referring to the peremptory challenge, a prospective juror can basically be dismissed for almost reason; however, dismissal due to race and sexual orientation is prohibited (Hall, 2015). According to Hall (2015), “In the federal system, both defendant and prosecutor has 20 peremptory strikes in death cases and 3 in misdemeanors; in capital felony cases the defendant gets 10 and the government 6. States have similar

The two basic types of courts in the United States are trial courts and appellate courts. These two types of courts have two entirely different functions. The job of a trial courts is to determine questions of fact. Appeals courts, on the other hand, must determine questions of law. Appellate courts have the right to overrule jury verdicts and judges decisions due to the fact that an appellate court typically concerns itself solely with issues of law. An appeal is not the time to retry the case or to reargue the facts. In civil matters, either party can appeal the decision of the trial court. Usually in criminal matters, however, only the defendant may appeal a criminal conviction and the state is not

roll. The jury is made up of 12 people from all walks of life who have

complaint was either files by a citizen or by following an arrest made by the

Before the trial even starts, there are several things that have already happened. The first is the arrest of the charged person. The person is arrested by police, or he/she turns himself/herself in, based on one or more charges that have been brought against the person. The person must then make an initial appearance before a judge. The person must be arraigned in a timely fashion and the defendant must then enter a plea at that hearing. If the defendant pleads guilty, there is no need for a criminal trial as the person is admitting that they are guilty (Nolo, 2012).

Criminal procedures are safeguards against the indiscriminate application of criminal laws and the wanton treatment of suspected criminals. Specifically, they are designed to enforce the constitutional rights of criminal suspects and defendants, beginning with initial police contact and continuing through arrest, investigation, trial, sentencing, and appeals. The main constitutional provisions regarding criminal procedure can be found in Amendments IV, V, VI, and XIV to the U.S. Constitution. The Supreme Court for the first time began to extend the protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights to exercises of power by state and local governments.

Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.