Defenses and Due Process Kylee Rivers CJS/220 Defenses and Due Process According to Gardner and Anderson (2011), an individual is only charged for a crime he/she committed intentionally. He suggests that such a crime must be without defense so that an individual is declared guilty. Defenses are situations that can stop or lessen the guilt in a case. Presentations of evidence for such situations ensure an accused person is defended from guilt. According to Gardner and Anderson (2011), the common elements of defense include insanity, entrapment and self-defense.
An "arraignment" is an appearance in court where charges are formally read to a defendant. The judge or magistrate may also evaluate whether there was probable cause for an arrest, and may compel the prosecutor to allege additional facts to support the arrest. If probable cause is not established, the defendant must
In order for legal causation to be established the question to be asked is whether it is fair to attribute blame to the defendant, if the jury believe the defendant can be blamed for the consequence then he is also the legal cause of the consequence. There must also be a direct link from the defendant’s conduct to the consequence; this is known as the chain of causation and so therefore in order for the defendant to be guilty of the consequence then there cannot be any major intervening acts. Intervening acts can include the actions of a third party, the victim’s own act or a natural but unpredictable event. Naturally there are issues with the rules on causation which I will discuss in detail in the remainder of this essay, the first issue comes with defining what is meant by more than a ‘slight or trifling’ link as this is a very vague phrase it can be difficult for juries to understand and so therefore may be misused. The second issue involves the thin skull rule which involves the defendant having to take the victim as he finds him which can be seen as unfair.
Issues: The issue is whether or not the prosecution violated the petitioner’s due process rights when evidence was withheld by the prosecution that would be favorable to the defendant. Secondly, where the limitations placed on the trial for punishment only a due process violation? Decisions: the Supreme Court rule the petitioners due process rights was violated when the prosecution failed to disclose exculpatory evidence that would be beneficial to the defense of the petitioner. Exculpatory evidence is evidence that would benefit the defense. When the prosecution failed to disclose the document of the accomplice’s confession they violated the petitioner’s right to due process.
They may, of course, be permitted to engage in certain authorized conduct that would be a crime if committed by regular citizens (such as the use of deadly force in appropriate circumstances). ● Civil lawsuits against government officials—the police, mainly—can be filed when neither the exclusionary rule nor other criminal remedies apply. Section 1983 litigation requires the plaintiff to show that a constitutional rights violation was committed by an official acting under color of state law. Section 1983 lawsuits can be filed against individual police officers, supervisors,
In other crimes different that this, a plea bargain may be a viable option but in this particular case its not. A Plea bargain is when the suspect pleas guilty to a lesser charge in order to lower its punishment. The next steps are the pre-trial activities and the pre-liminary hearing is the next steps leading up to the trial. These two steps explain to the suspect and his attorney the evidence and the charges. If enough evidence is present a trail will be in act.
The suppression of facts or the secreting of witnesses capable of establishing the innocence of the accused is highly reprehensible. This coupling in the ethics rules of the general requirement to seek justice with the specific prohibition against withholding facts or witnesses favorable to the defense highlights the importance of disclosure. The prosecutor in a criminal case shall make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense. Prosecutors are required to disclose evidence to the defense that could assist the defendant in effort to ensure a fair process. The defendant has a constitutional right to disclosure of exculpatory evidence that is material to guilt or
It is therefore, justified that Mr. Dents is mentally unstable and should receive psychiatric care rather than go to prison (Ciolino, 2000). If the presented evidence show doubts about an individual’s sanity, then there is a need to establish sanity to the accused individual (Cole, 2008). The burden of proof is used to prove to the defense with clear and convincing evidence. Defendants
“Under this system, the parties to a case develop and present their arguments, gather and submit evidence, call and question witnesses, and generally control the information presented according to the law and legal process.” (U.S. Legal, 2011) Court cases involve a plaintiff and a defendant. In a criminal case the plaintiff is typically the state of the people, and the defendant is the person accused of committing the crime in question. The state is represented by a prosecutor, or district attorney. The defendant is represented by a defense
It is to be noted that, there is no necessity in a false imprisonment case to prove that a person used physical violence or laid hands on another person. It is sufficient to show that at any time or place the person in any manner deprived another person of his/her liberty without sufficient legal authority. False arrest is sometimes used interchangeably with false imprisonment. False arrest is the unlawful violation of the personal liberty of another consisting of detention without sufficient legal authority. In order to establish a false arrest claim, the person detained must prove that the arrest is unlawful and such unlawful arrest resulted in injury.