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Criminal justice process

Criminal justice process is usually a complicated process. It can be confusing to individuals who may be unfamiliar with the criminal law. There is, therefore, the need to provide arrest to sentence guide that will explain and make clarifications regarding the criminal justice process.

Theses: The paper seeks to explain the steps between the arrests, pretrial, trial, and appeals and describe the contingencies involved in each of the stages addressing all the probable outcomes. Besides, it will also make analyzes of the constitutional protections for the defendants. Finally, the paper will make an evaluation of the system’s efficiency and give the recommendations.

Arrest, pre-trial, trial, and appeals summary and the contingencies for each stage and the possible outcomes.

Crime committed

The investigations involve interviews, eyes witnesses, and the suspects. It also includes a collection of evidence, measurement and photographing of the crime scene and looking for records. The responding officers’ conduct the investigations and others referred to as detectives (Heilbrun, 2014).

Making of arrest by police

After the officers have evidence that there is a commission of misbehaviors and felonies, they go arrest the suspect on the spot in the absence of an arrest warrant. The officer then forwards a warrant request to the prosecuting attorney making suggestions of authorization of potential charges.

Warrant

It starts with a warrant request. It would be the first time of the prosecuting attorney office involvement in a case unless there is a visit to the crime scene by the prosecutor. The prosecutor decides on whether there should be charging for the person and the type of the offense (Ciampi, 2011). He does a thorough review of all the reports besides the records regarding the case inclusion of the witness statement. He also does the analysis of the suspect preceding criminal case. He sends the case back to the police to further investigations in rare instances.

Issue of warrant

The prosecutor makes a question of a charge after he believes without doubts that there is the existence of a probability that the suspect committed the crime. He may make use of higher standards regarding whether the charge is provable beyond reasonable doubts (Ciampi, 2011). In case the evidence is sufficiently high, there is authorization of at least one charges otherwise there will be release of the suspect

Arrest of the suspect if not in custody

The delay between the date of the crime and the time of detention of the defendant may take an extended period (Heilbrun, 2014). In case the suspect is in custody, there is handling of the review process in an advanced manner.

Arraignment in the district court

It forms the first appearance in the court for any felony. There is the creation of awareness on the defendant about the charges and the maximum penalty if found guilty. Besides he learns of his /her constitutional rights. The judge makes a determination of the bond together with conditions enforced upon the defendant during his/her pretrial release (Heilbrun, 2014). There is setting of bond in all the cases but up to the defendant wealth to post bail money that gives him room for release. There is then setting off the pretrial date conference.

Misdemeanor

At the arraignment, the defender receives an opportunity to plea to the charge, beseech guilty, plead not guilty or remain silent. In case the defendant pleads not guilty or remains silent, there is scheduling of the matter for a pretrial conference.

Pretrial conference

There is scheduling of all the cases between the prosecuting attorney and the defendant. It is to make a determination of whether the case will proceed to trial or resolution to take other ways (Ciampi, 2011). There is no direct involvement of the judges and the witnesses in the pretrial conference.

Pretrial proceedings

There may be pretrial hearings on the issues of constitutions. There is the issuance of the problems to the court through written motions. The judge makes decisions of whether there will admission of evidence at the defendant’s trial (Ciampi, 2011). Besides, he decides on whether there are legal grounds for not trying the defendant besides making other ways of the trial.

Felony

At this arraignment in the district court, their defendant cannot plea guilt or not guilt. He/she receives advice regarding his /her rights, and there is setting off a bond besides setting a preliminary date for the examination. There could also be consideration of the defendant’s request regarding a court-appointed an attorney.

Reexamination conference

There is scheduling of a pre-examination conference by some courts. It performs like a misdemeanor pretrial conference. There is a meeting between the prosecutor and the defendant to gauge whether there can be a resolution of the case without witnesses.

Felony examination

It is a contested hearing before the court judge that takes place within 14 days after arraignment. There is a presentation of the witness by the prosecutor to convince the judge that the defendant committed the crime at hand. The defendant can make an examination of the witness (Neubauer, 2012). He can also waive the right to an introductory review.

Circuit court arraignment

After sending the case to the circuit court, the defender receives notice of the charges against him /her. Besides he/she receives advice regarding his/ her constitutional rights and enters plea to the charge (McClean, 2012).

Pretrial conference

There is scheduling of a meeting by the circuit court between the defendants attorney general and the prosecutor attorney general (Neubauer, 2012). It aims at determining whether to resolve the case in some other way or to go to the trial.

Pretrial proceedings

There is calling upon of the circuit court judge to resolve several [re trial issue. Some of them acts as determinants of the whether the case will continue to a trial, settle it with a plea, dismiss it or whether particular evidence is allowed at trial.

Trial

A test involves adversary proceedings whereby the prosecutor ought to present evidence as a proof of the defendant’s guilt beyond reasonable doubts (Heilbrun, 2014). There is a denial of the accused to prove his /her innocent besides providing any evidence but he/she can challenge the accuracy of the evidence. There is a right to trial by jury to both the defendant and the prosecutor. In case of the trial by jury, the jury is the trier of fact .the jury determines whether the accused committed the crime after the evidence.

Pre-sentence investigations and report

There is the preparation of a report by the court’s probation department. The judges make a summary of the crime including the informational regarding the defendant s personal and criminal information. There is a conclusion from the probation officer regarding the report (Neubauer, 2012).

Sentence

Sentences fall at the discretion of the judges. Judges make consideration of the information in the presentence report, extra evidence from the offended party and comments from the victims of the crime (McClean, 2012). The circuit court makes consultations of the sentencing guidelines in case of the felonies. Judges make considerations of various alternatives such as fines, community service, probation, and sentenced to jail or prison or both.

Appeals

The hearing of the appeals from the district court takes place in the circuit courts. The healing of appeals from court besides the probate court order takes place in the Michigan court of appeals. The kinds of motion are three and includes the interlocutory that appears in case a party tries to make appeals to decisions by the judge before finishing the case. Secondly is the or right that occurs after entering the final order by the trial court (Scheb, 2009). Finally is the by leave that occurs in the event of the imposition of a new focus on the sentence. The appellate court has the power to make a rejection of the appeal besides granting a leave.

Statutory protections for the respondent work at each stage of the proceeding.

There are several legal rights of the criminal defendants. The major one is that the prosecution should prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Other reasons include the following. Right to remain silent. U.S Constitution provides that the defendant ought no complement to any criminal case to be a witness against himself. It means that nobody should force the defendant to speak. It provides the defendants with the rights to receive confrontations by the witnesses against them. It makes the defendants the right to make a cross-examination of the witnesses meaning that they can require the witness to come into the court. Right to the public trial. There is guaranteeing of the public trials in criminal cases (Scheb, 2009). The presence of a defendant’s family in the court helps in ensuring that government is observant of crucial rights in association with the trails. Right to the jury trial. The sixth amendment provides a person accused of a crime right to receive jury trial unless for minor offenses having a sentence of six months or less. The interpretation of the right means 12 person jury. Right to a speedy trial. The sixth amendment offers the defendant right to a speedy trial though it does not make specifications of the particular time limits (McClean, 2012). Therefore, the judges always make decisions on a case by case basis concerning whether there has been delaying of the defendant’s trial. All the jurisdictions have statutes enacted that that set the time limits for cases. Right to have attorney representation. 

The sixth amendment has a provision that in all the criminal prosecutions, the accused ought to enjoy the right and have the help of counsel for his defense (McClean, 2012). There must be the appointment of an attorney by the judge at the expense of the government. Right to have adequate representation. There is the ruling by the US supreme court that defendants represented by the appointed counsel and those who hire attorneys have the entitlement to enough representation. They ought to have a lawyer who carries out a reasonable good job of defending the defendant. The defendants ought to have adequate representation on the trials and also in time of the plea (Neubauer, 2012). Right from double jeopardy placement. The Fifth Amendment provides that no placing of any person for the same offense. It offers protection to the defendant from being tried more than once for the same offense.it also prohibits more than one criminal trial arising from the same conduct.

Evaluation of the system efficiency in dealing with criminal prosecutions

Preliminary hearing is just a practice run in the state. Fording of the causes of absence of probable causes has no effects on the jeopardy. The defendant can receive charge even after winning after gathering more evidence by the state (Heilbrun, 2014). Many a times, it forces the prosecutor to see weaknesses in his case. It implies that the attorney will know the extra information that he may require making a stronger case against the defendant. It means that the respondent may win the battle but lose the war. Besides that, there is the problem of reverse discovery by the state. The questions posed at the hearing makes the defendants frequently expose their defensive strategies. From the period of preliminary hearing to that of trial by jury, the prosecution can seek more evidence to counter the defense making their cases stronger. In an absence of a preliminary hearing, the prosecutor would lack extra evidence before the trial (Loveless, 2012). There is recording of everything said at the preliminary hearing that preserves testimony that may or fail to work in favor of the defendant. In case of the trial, the complaining victim may fail to appear and make statement.it has the implication of dismissal of charges against the accused. On the other hand, in case the victim had made testimonies and received active questioning regarding the merits of the allegations, then there would be an admission of the evidence at a later trial. Conservation of the particular evidence may backfire at times in the form of conviction.

Recommendations to make the system fairer

There are many suggestions for making the system equitable and ethical to all the individuals involved. They include adjustment of the extent of bargaining the cases in the jurisdiction before the preliminary hearing. Besides that is the extent of careful evaluation by the prosecutors before the hearing. Prosecutors make use of hearing in the determination of charges, but they should make use of careful evaluations (Leiber, 2003). Besides that, there should be consideration of the time in addition to the attention that magistrates offer to the preliminary hearing (Loveless, 2012). Many a times, in case of busy jurisdictions, the court typically spends limited time on each of the hearing. It, therefore, leads to considerations that have more abbreviations. There should also be the regulation of the extent to which a prosecutor can make introductions of hearsay besides other evidence that is inadmissible at the trial. Finally, it should be held clear on whether the defense ought to make presentations of affirmative defenses at the preliminary hearing.

Conclusion

Criminal justice process sets in after the commitment of a crime, and there is contacting of the of law enforcement. The role of the victim or a witness, therefore, becomes crucial. Through understanding the steps involved in the arrest and the sentence, an individual is in a position to know his/her area of participation (Loveless, 2012). There will be questions regarding the suspects, crime details, crime location among others. Knowledge of the steps will provide an individual with fertile grounds to answer such issues. There are the expectations of cooperation from the person and though knowing the protections available for an individual, they will not be in a position to give information out of coercion. They will exercise their rights and thus making the process smooth ( Leiber, 2003). Different cases proceed in different ways thus an individual will know the right time to intervene or to bring their witnesses. Besides, provision of recommendations for areas requiring adjustments helps in making the system more efficient and equitable.