All citizens are given the right to a fair jury trial, because the defendant is innocent until proven guilty. What if I said, there are studies that show that cases can be won or lost based on the jury selection, would you believe me? What if I said, that demographics about the jurors like their ethnicity, age, gender and other variables could determine the outcome of a trial, would you believe me? The purpose of a jury
It also is in some ways fairer to witnesses and prospective jurors. Imagine if in all these cases, the victim and witnesses had to come to court to testify. And in all these cases, people had to leave their jobs in order to serve on juries. That would be very onerous for the public. So from the stat’s point of view, if you have someone, especially someone who’s clearly guilty, and you could get them to plead guilty by offering them an inducement, it’s in everybody’s interest to do that.
All of the prosecution’s witnesses would have been difficult, if not impossible to track down for the new trial. To allow a retrial, while granting the defendant a legal right, would presumably let a guilty man walk free. Heffernan was struggling between the moral issues he was presented, and maximizing the legal advantages he held. After all a prosecutor’s decision to challenge a defendant’s appeal is usually enough to guarantee that a conviction is upheld. Whether or not this man was punished and remained in jail was up to the prosecution.
A Plea bargain is an agreement between the prosecutor and the defendant in a criminal case where the defendant pleads guilty to a certain charge in exchange for a lesser penalty from the prosecutor. Plea bargaining brings many benefits to the prosecutor and the court system but also comes with much criticism. Normally the judge will offer a plea bargain when the defendant knowingly waives his rights and admits that their guilty. The use of plea bargaining can benefit the criminal justice system as a whole. For a defendant faces several years in jail and possibly multiple charges they can look forward to a few of their sentences being dropped and a reduction in their sentencing.
In terms of the defendant there are many benefits, which entice them to enter into a plea bargain. For example, a defendant who may be facing multiple charges and the potential for years in jail has the opportunity to get multiple charges dropped as well as getting a significantly reduced sentence. Even though there are many benefits to a plea bargain there are also some bad ones like making the court system look soft because it gives the opportunity to give a lower sentence to criminals. Another disadvantage it that even though a judge and prosecutor may have an agreement and a plea bargain worked out, the courts still have to have the final determination and agree with the terms of the plea bargain. If for whatever reason the court rejects the plea then the case will proceed
Abe Haskins Jury Nullification Paper CJA/344 Cultural Diversity in Criminal Justice June 25, 201208 Jury Nullification Jury nullification was first practiced in 1735, and since then, it has become an important element to our criminal justice system. According to Legal-dictionary, “Jury nullification is a jury’s decision to acquit a defendant despite explicitly violating the law because the jury felt that the law was unjust or not applicable to the case.” Whenever there is a jury nullification, unfortunately race and ethnicity are equated in the decision as well as all the other elements that categorize a guilty or not guilty verdict. Racial-based jury notifications have become a problem for our criminal justice system. A jury is used in a trial case to give fair treatment to the defendant whether he or she is guilty or innocent of the alleged crime. Whether the defendant is white, black, red, or green, the color of the defendant’s skin should not be a factor when deciding a case.
There is a clear division line separating the north and south which displays the difference in development level of nations. The north is predominantly more developed than the south, with massively wealthy nations like the America; consequently there is less poverty in the north and people generally have a higher standard of living. In comparison, the south is dominated by poor countries which have low levels of development. Most of the people in the south have a lower standard of living due to high poverty rates; however there are some exceptions to this trend like Australia. Evidently there is an unequal relationship between the north and south, which could be mainly due to the fact many of the southern countries were owned by the north in the past.
With a plea bargain it can conclude a criminal case a lot faster without a trail. In a plea bargain the prosecutor will offer a plea and if the defendant takes it then he/ she will plead guilty without having to go to through a trial. Once the defendant accepts the plea the prosecutor will most likely dismiss certain charges or make sentence recommendation to the court. Once the attorney and the prosecutor have reached an agreement they bring it up to the defendant to see if they want to take the deal or not and that is called plea negotiations. A plea bargain can help a prosecutor by it saves the court valuable time for high-priority cases.
If a judge perceives that the plea bargain is too lenient the judge has the right to reject the plea and order of the prosecuting and the defense to renegotiate. Defendants that are pleading guilty as a result of the plea agreement must acknowledge their plea in open court. Defendant who pleads guilty after the plea has been negotiations do not surrender their right to an appeal; their conviction goes to the Appellate Division of Superior Courts. Also if a defendant pleading guilty to a crime
When questioning the ethical responsibilities of the defense attorney, the biggest question is it ethical for a defense attorney to represent a person believed to be guilty. The best thing will be to understand their responsibilities as a defense attorney. The accused person has the right to be represented in a trail and the defense attorney has a duty to represent the accused, regardless to their belief if the accused is guilty or not guilty. It is the duty of an unbiased jury to wisely decide if the accused of the crime had committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. One once said,” That it was better to have ten criminals escape punishment than to have one innocent person imprisoned.” To achieve this it will be ideal to keep the government honest; doing so without convictions by false statements, planted evidence or lying witnesses.