Download Trial de novo - AJ 001 INTRO TO AJ

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General goals of the court system
 Provide for an open and impartial forum for
seeking the truth
 Provide for a fair and equitable hearing using
established due process rules
 Insure that the process takes place in an
atmosphere of legal competence and objectivity
 Provide a clear legal outcome
Without courts (lawyers, judges), law has no
legs: the law is not self-executing
 The rights guaranteed under the Constitution
against government overreach depend on
courts being willing to protect them
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 E.g., habeas corpus petitions (“produce the body”)
 E.g., can “terrorists” be imprisoned without access
to courts?
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All court systems are hierarchies of
jurisdiction
 State, federal, tribal court hierarchies
 Different powers, functions, and occupational
priorities for different courts
 Original (limited, general) and appellate
(intermediate, last resort) jurisdictions
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Each court is a system
Judge, prosecutor, defense, clerks, probation, police form a
“working group” which participates in decision-making
The court working group often seeks to “work things out” among
the participants.
The use of plea negotiations and other nonjudicial alternatives to
“work things out” is more common than a formal trial process.
The working group exists because participants need to work
together over long periods of time
The “worth of a case” is the basic working norm for informal
decision-making
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Courts have a heavy work load
 Differences between ideal and real (remember the
wedding cake
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model)
Discretion sometimes results in disparity
Funding problems
Technology as a way of dealing with heavy
work loads (e.g., calendaring, jury pools)
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Overcrowded dockets
Assembly-line justice –at the lowest level of
the wedding cake
Too many incentives to plead guilty and to
plea bargain
Too few jury trials
Speedy trials are unattainable
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State courts
 Every state has its own court system
 No two are alike
 Some states still have local courts staffed by
amateurs on a part time bases (e.g. village courts
in New York)
 Deal with variety of cases ranging from homicide
to property maintenance
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Courts of limited jurisdiction
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The work horses of the criminal justice system
About 13,500 exist
Organized at municipal or county level
Restricted in types of cases they hear
May be restricted to civil or criminal cases
Dispose of minor cases – may do preliminary
activities for some felonies
 Sentencing options restricted
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Specialty courts
 Juvenile, family, and probate courts
 Courts to combat specific problems
▪ Drug courts, adults, and juveniles
▪ Mental health courts
▪ IRS court
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Courts of general jurisdiction
 Around 2,000 in the U.S.
 Hear serious felony cases
 Civil cases with damages over a specified amount
 Appeals from lower courts
▪ Review of transcript
▪ Trial de novo
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Appellate courts
 Each state has at least one level of appellate courts.
▪ Highest state court, usually called the “State Supreme Court”
 Court reconsiders a case that has been tried in order to
determine whether the measures used complied with
accepted rules of criminal procedure and were in line with
constitutional doctrines
 Appeal is not a new trial
 Can order a new trial, overturn lower court decision, or
uphold original verdict
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Federal courts
 Legal basis for these courts found in Article 3, sec.
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1, of U.S. Constitution
Jurisdiction over laws of U.S. and treaties
Maritime jurisdiction
Over controversies between 2 or more states
3-tiered hierarch of court jurisdiction
▪ U.S. District Courts
▪ U.S. Courts of Appeals
▪ U.S. Supreme Court
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U.S. district courts
 Trial courts of the federal system
 Organized by Congress in the Judicial Act of 1789
 Jurisdiction over violations of federal law, i.e. civil
rights violations, interstate transportation of stolen
vehicles and kidnappings
 May hear inter-state lawsuits or cases where federal
government is a party to the suit
 Jurisdiction may overlap that of state courts
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U.S. courts of appeals
 Organized into 13 judicial circuits
 Hear 40,000 appeals from district courts each year
 Empowered to review federal and state appellate
court cases when there is a federal issue present
 Do not retry the case or review the facts – only
matters of procedure and substance of the law
 Current attempts to limit the right of appeal
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The U.S. Supreme Court
 Nation’s highest appellate body – court of last resort
for all cases tried in federal and state courts
 Only federal court mentioned in the Constitution
 Nine justices appointed for life (good behavior) by the
President with approval of Congress
 Court has discretion to choose which cases it will hear
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Supreme Court process
 Most appeals to Supreme Court first evaluated by
clerks working for justices
 Most cases (90 percent) are brought to the court by
using a writ of certiorari
▪ 4 of the 9 justices must vote to hear the case
 If the Court decides to hear a case, it reviews legal
briefs and may hear oral arguments
 May decide to affirm or reverse the decision of the
lower court
 Decisions become precedent
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State courts handle about one hundred
million new cases each year including:
 20 million civil and domestic cases
 15 million criminal cases
 2 million juvenile cases
 57 million traffic and ordinance violations
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Federal courts even though smaller, are
equally burdened
 Over 320,000 cases filed each year in District
Courts
▪ Criminal cases increased 55 percent since 1994
 Circuit Courts hear more than 60,000 appeals per
year
▪ In 1969 they heard only 10,000 appeals
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Causes of court congestion
 Rapidly increasing populations outpace growth in court
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system
People like to sue each other
Aggressive attempts to lower crime rate result in more
prosecutions
Complexity of the law and advances in technology
Legal reform efforts may require more trials
Frivolous lawsuits
Lazy judges
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Official roles:
 Political: campaign for election (if elected); think
ahead
 Administrative: manage and supervise court
personnel, resources, can have extensive control
over probation officers and court clerk
 Legal:
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Issue warrants
Decisions in preliminary hearings – bind over or not
Make bail decisions
agree to plea-bargains
request PSIs (pre-sentence reports)
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Primary duty is to oversee the trial process
 Ensures appropriate conduct
 Guides selection of juries and instructs on their roles during trial
 Settles questions of evidence and procedure – deals with
motions
 Guides questioning of witnesses
 Responsible for jury instructions after case is presented
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Decides case in bench trials
Determines the sentence (except in capital cases)
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Informal roles
 Maintain good relations with court working group
 Use discretion guided by legal requirements
 Personal sense of justice in sentencing
 Worry about appeals and being overturned
 Exert influence over police and prosecutors
 Decisions may shape social policy
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Judicial qualifications
 Qualification vary by state
 Typical qualifications are:
▪ Resident of the state
▪ Between 25 and 70 years of age
▪ Member of state bar licensed to practice law
▪ Lower courts may not require law degree
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Judicial selection systems
 Appointment
 Popular election
 Nonpartisan election
 Missouri Plan
▪ Judicial nominating commission
▪ Appointed by governor from commission’s list
▪ Retention election
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The prosecutor
 May be called district attorney, county attorney,
state’s attorney, or U.S. attorney depending on the
level of government and jurisdiction
 Responsible for representing the public in criminal
trials
 Around 2,400 state court prosecutors offices
 Employ 65,000 attorneys, investigators, and support
staff
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Types of prosecutors
 U.S. Attorneys – appointed by the President
 Federal prosecutors are professional civil service
employees
 State and county levels, attorney general, and
district attorney are chief prosecutorial officers
 Political appointees or elected
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General duties
 Provide advice to law enforcement officers during
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investigations
Represents the state during pretrial plea negotiations,
motions, evidence, and bail hearings
Represents the state at other hearings, criminal trials,
and appeals
Legal advisor to county commissioners and other
elected officials
Implementation of special programs
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Administrator: manage the office
Informal: interact with working group
Legal
Evaluate the case file
Decide to take the case forward or not
Conduct the case if go forward
 Strategy and tactics
 Sentencing recommendations
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Prosecutors have a great deal of discretion
Evaluate case files
 Strong or weak case: factual, legal, political?
 Decision Options:
▪ Go forward and charge the defendant to court: indictment
or information
▪ – dismiss case, about 50 percent of the time
▪ Plea bargain the case
 May leave decision to charge someone with minor
crime primarily to police discretion
 Charge construction:
▪ converting facts into a legal case
▪ same facts can be used to construct different charges or
cases
▪ charge construction will determine the level of punishment
if guilty
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Legal issues influencing prosecutorial discretion on
cases
 Quality of police work and amount of relevant evidence
 Legal weaknesses in the case
 Seriousness of offense
 Defendant’s prior arrest record
 Danger to community
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Victim issues influencing prosecutorial discretion
 Attitude and behavior of the victim
 Reluctance of victim to press charges
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Extra legal/resource issues influencing
prosecutorial discretion
 Offenders’ race, gender, and ethnicity
 Cost of the prosecution to the system
 Availability of alternatives
 Interest group’s influence causes to focus on
particular types of offenses
 Fear of losing case – political ramifications
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The role of prosecutorial discretion
 Can prevent unnecessarily rigid implementation
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of criminal law
Humanize operation of criminal justice system
Imposes professional judgments and the sense of
the court working group on the processing of
cases
Too much discretion can lead to abuse
Prosecutors have their own perspectives
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Types of prosecutorial misconduct
 overcharging a case to be able to plea-bargain later
 making disruptive statements in court
 failure to adhere to sentence recommendations pursuant to a
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plea bargain
represented a criminal defendant currently under prosecution
making public statements harmful to the office
withholding evidence, non-discovery
Knowingly using false or manufactured evidence to gain
conviction
using power in vindictive manner to punish defendants who
insist on exercising their constitutional rights
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Integral part of adversarial system
Required to uphold integrity of the legal
profession
Must observe and provide zealous defense
within boundaries of law
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Courts do not require assistance of counsel
for accused in:
 Pre-indictment lineups
 Booking procedures
 Grand jury investigations
 Appeals beyond first review
 Disciplinary proceedings in correctional
institutions
 Post-release revocation hearings
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Roles of the defense
 Protect rights of client
 Argue for client’s side in plea bargaining and trials
 Conduct effective trial strategy, lay grounds for
appeal
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Duties of defense
 How far to go to protect client?
 Ethical concerns: balancing rights of client with
public safety and justice
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Legal services for poor people
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Gideon v. Wainwright
Argersinger v. Hamlin
Public defender systems
Assigned counsel systems
Contract systems
Private attorneys, pro bono or hired
▪ Most do not practice criminal law
▪ Debate over effectiveness of private attorneys versus
attorneys provided by state
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Strickland v. Washington
Inadequate and incompetent counsel
 Refuse to meet with client
 Fail to cross-examine witnesses
 Fail to investigate case
 Poor advice to client
 Conflict of interest between codefendants’
counsel
 Sleeping during trial
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Administrative Office Act, 1939
States have been slow to apply court
management principles
 All states now have some form of court
administration
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Computers allow courts to fulfill many functions
more efficiently
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Maintain case history and statistical reporting
Monitor and schedule cases
Prepare documents
Index cases
Issues summonses
Notify witnesses, attorneys, and others of required
appearances
 Select and notify jurors
 Prepare and administer budgets
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Developing areas of court technology
 Communications
 Videoconferencing
 Evidence presentation
 Case management
 Internet utilization
 Information sharing
 Cameras in court