2.  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

3.  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  E.g., habeas corpus petitions (“produce the body”)  E.g., can “terrorists” be imprisoned without access to courts?

4.  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

5.  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

6.  Courts have a heavy work load  Differences between ideal and real (remember the wedding cake model)  Discretion sometimes results in disparity  Funding problems  Technology as a way of dealing with heavy work loads (e.g., calendaring, jury pools)

7.  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

9.  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

10.  Courts of limited jurisdiction  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

11.  Specialty courts  Juvenile, family, and probate courts  Courts to combat specific problems ▪ Drug courts, adults, and juveniles ▪ Mental health courts ▪ IRS court

12.  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

13.  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

14.  Federal courts  Legal basis for these courts found in Article 3, sec. 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

16.  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

17.  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

18.  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

19.  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

20.  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

21.  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

22.  Causes of court congestion  Rapidly increasing populations outpace growth in court 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

23.  Official roles:  Political: campaign for election (if elected); think ahead  Administrative: manage and supervise court personnel, resources, can have e xtensive control over probation officers and court clerk

24.  Legal: ▪ Issue warrants ▪ Decisions in preliminary hearings – bind over or not ▪ Make bail decisions ▪ agree to plea-bargains ▪ request PSIs (pre-sentence reports)

25.  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  Decides case in bench trials  Determines the sentence (except in capital cases)

26.  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

27.  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

28.  Judicial selection systems  Appointment  Popular election  Nonpartisan election  Missouri Plan ▪ Judicial nominating commission ▪ Appointed by governor from commission’s list ▪ Retention election

29.  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

30.  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

31.  General duties  Provide advice to law enforcement officers during 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

32.  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

33.  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

34.  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

35.  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  Victim issues influencing prosecutorial discretion  Attitude and behavior of the victim  Reluctance of victim to press charges

36.  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

37.  The role of prosecutorial discretion  Can prevent unnecessarily rigid implementation 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

38.  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 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

39.  Integral part of adversarial system  Required to uphold integrity of the legal profession  Must observe and provide zealous defense within boundaries of law

40.  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

41.  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  Duties of defense  How far to go to protect client?  Ethical concerns: balancing rights of client with public safety and justice

42.  Legal services for poor people  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

43.  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

44.  Administrative Office Act, 1939  States have been slow to apply court management principles  All states now have some form of court administration

45.  Computers allow courts to fulfill many functions more efficiently  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

46.  Developing areas of court technology  Communications  Videoconferencing  Evidence presentation  Case management  Internet utilization  Information sharing  Cameras in court