Magistrate’s courts make up 95% of the criminal justice system. However they may here civil matters such as family issues, liquor licensing and also betting and gaming licensing. The lay magistrates can hear any appeals for bail or remand. Bail where the defendant is trying to stay out of prison until the next hearing and remand where the prosecution is trying to keep the defendant in prison until the next hearing. Magistrates have a clerk sit in the cases and hearings with them.
Queen or King is a head of state, but they don’t have much power and prime minister is head of government. Also people vote in general elections for MP‘s to present them. Who is entitled to stand People who want to put themselves forward to be an MP must be 18 years old, British citizen, Republic of Ireland or Commonwealth citizen free to remain. Certain people can’t become an MP’s and that is because if they’ve had bankruptcy , remains undercharged in Scotland, served in prison more than 12 months or civil servants, judges, people who work in police and armed forces. However, those who can stand for an election must pay £500 deposit and they must be nominated by 10 electors of the constituency they wish to stand in except they wish to stand as an individual.
Determinate sentences involve sentences that have a fixed or flat time (Jirard, 2009). Determinate sentences play a large part in the increasing number of individuals in prison, which, as you can imagine, puts more strain on prisons financially. In the past two decades, we have become increasingly “tough on crime” which has helped to decrease crime to a certain extent. According to an article in the New York Times (2008), the US has fewer than five percent of the entire world’s population, but almost twenty five percent of the world’s prisoners (Liptak & , 2008). The author of the article goes on to say that people in the US are sentenced to do time for crimes that would not produce such a sentence in other countries.
The tutorial discussion this week was essentially discussing how the system operates and some of the flaws within the system such as false convictions which come about through human error or in extreme cases racial bias (Alberto F. Alesina, Eliana La Ferrara, 2011). There was also discussion about the members of the jury and if they are qualified or competent to decide he guilt or innocence of an individual based on their opinions and perceptions of the trial. My view on the criminal justice system is that overall the system is adequately effective in terms of providing a fair trial for the accused and well suited to punish individuals based on viable evidence and the judgment of experienced judges and magistrates. These issues reflect the interests of the JSB173 unit because the unit focuses on a fair trial through either the
It is so deeply entrenched in our constitution that, unless express statutory language indicates otherwise, the highest possible forensic standard of proof is required to be established before the right is removed. That is criminal standard.” Lord Devlin justified the jury trial in his Hamlyn Lectures on the jury system as he regarded “The best blend of logic and common sense” as being in the verdict of 12 jurors. The decision often has to be judged from the witness’s demeanor and his way of giving evidence.” Normally a jury consists of 12 people. The Members of the jury are known as jurors. The jury is the panel of lay people, a cross section of society, selected at random.
A jury can be defined as a group of people (usually 12 in number) who have been selected to consider the issues of fact in a trail in a Court of Law, in order to make a finding as to an individual’s guilt or lack thereof to a standard which is either “beyond reasonable doubt” or “on the balance of probabilities”. In criminal cases, the jury system exists to decide if the defendant is guilty or not. In civil cases, they aim to decide if the claimant has proved their case and the amount of compensation to be awarded. It should be noted that in the United Kingdom a Judge usually presides over civil trials except where a jury is deemed necessary. BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JURY SYSTEM The system is believed to date as far back as Norman times and is thought to have been used as a means of gathering information for the king.
It's popular throughout Europe and British Isles. They are group of people form citizens, but not any legal person. To be precise, it is a body of persons sworn to judge and give a verdict on a given matter, especially a body of persons summoned by law and sworn to hear and hand down a verdict upon a case presented in court. There are 12 jurors on criminal jury whereas 6 juror in civil jury. The Constitution of Australia provides in section 80 that 'the trial on indictment of any offence against any law of the Commonwealth shall be by jury'.
The judicial functions of the House of Lords were assumed by the 12 lords of appeal in ordinary otherwise known as “law lords”. The change now gives the Supreme Court jurisdiction over cases that would have usually been heard by the Privy Council. The Supreme Court hears appealed case from courts of the United Kingdom’s three legal systems with the exception of Scotland where their highest court for civil issues is situated in Scotland; Court of Session and high court of judiciary for criminal cases. The cases that are heard by Lord Justices of the Supreme Court are very few and require the attention of Law Lords. The cases that are heard here are of general importance to the public.
Any defendant has a right to ‘trial by one’s peers,’ the jury system supports this right as its members are a random selection of Australian citizens. The jury system ensures justice by ‘injecting common sense into a legal system otherwise dominated by lawyers’ (Horan, Dr. Jacqueline 2012), this community input helps to ensure that citizens feel that laws are developed by the people and for the people as it’s an important check against state power. However, with the rising complexity of evidence being shown in court, many people are beginning to feel that insufficient intellect is involved with juries (Horan, Dr. Jacqueline 2012). Lack of criminal or law based training as well as insufficient intellect leads to confusing and minimal understanding of cases and basic rules of law (Farouque, Farah. 2012).
They are not disqualified for jury service Persons who disqualify for the jury are: 1. Persons who have been sentenced to life imprisonment 2. Served any part of a sentence of imprisonment, youth custody or dentention 3. Been detained in a young offender institution 4. Did community service as defined in Section 160 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 The Court of Appeal decision in R v Mason (1980), stated that it was not only lawful but necessary and a commonsense precaution for the police to vet jurors criminal