Chapter 10, 11, 12 Criminal Courts

release on recognizance (ROR)

-No amount. Based on reputation and ties to the community -Minor crimes

Two types of pleas that do not require a defendant to allocate by giving a factual basis for the crimes to which they are pleading because they do not involve or express admission of guilt

-No contest and Alford plea

No Contest

-No contest means you're conceding the charge without admitting guilt and without presenting a defense. But unlike a plea of guilty or innocent, a defendant must get a court's consent to plead no contest, which comes with certain legal consequences.

Serves as a consent by the defendant that he may punish as if he were guilty and a prayer for leniency.

-No contest plea

Bail Bond

-Surety (Insurance Agent) posts the amount of the bond in return for a fee of 10% of bond amount

True Bill

-The Grand Jury Find the charges to be true

No True Bill

-The Grand Jury found insufficient evidence

Charge Bargaining

Law on the Books - The defendant pleads guilty to a less serious charge than the one originally filed - Pleading to a less serious charge reduces the potential sentence the defendant's faces Law in Action - Courthouse norms control allowable reductions - Some prosecutors deliberately overcharge so it appears that the defendant is getting a break

Count Bargaining

Law on the Books - The defendant pleads guilty to some, but not all, of the counts contained in the charging document. Pleading guilty to fewer counts reduces the potential sentence the defendant's faces. Law in Action -Some prosecutors deliberately file additional charge so they can dismiss some, later on, making it appear that the defendant got a good deal. - In multiple- count charges, sentences are typically served concurrently (not consecutively), so the "sentence reduction" the defendant recieves is largely illusionary

Sentence Bargaining

Law on the Books - The defendant pleads guilty, knowing the sentence that will be imposed - The sentence in the sentence bargain is less than the maximum Law in Action - Sentences are based on normal penalties - Because the normal penalty for an for an offense is less than the maximum, defendants appear to get of lightly

Plea Bargaining

Law on the Books - The process by which a defendant pleads guilty to a criminal charge with the expectation of receiving some benefit from the state Law in Action - The majority of findings of guilty occur because of plea bargaining - The proportion of pleas (as opposed to trails) varies among jurisdiction

Aerial Searches

Police do not need the warrant to conduct aerial surveillance as long as its at a distant

charging

-Where the Prosecution Begins -Commences with Charging Document -Complaint -Information (Charging Document for Misdemeanors) -Indictment for Felonies

Allocute

-a formal speech giving advice or a warning.

Most cases are disposed of by

-a guilty plea

All members of the courtroom work group have a common interest

-disposing of cases and avoiding unneccesary trials.

Judges and prosecutors want

-high disposition rates in order to prevent case backlogs and to present a public impression that the process is running smoothly

Bail

-its a guarantee through property or $$$ forfeited if you fail to appear -8th Amendment of Constitution does not guarantee right to bail If granted, however, it cannot be excessive -However, state constitutions and statutes often create right to bail -Texas - Defendant must be release on personal recognizance bond if not indicted within 90 days of detention -Set by lower court magistrate -Wealthy benefit from pretrial release more than the poor

Property Bond

-property equity must be double of bond in many jurisdictions - A piece of property as collatertal in order to post bail

Public defenders want

-quick dispositions because they lack the personnel to handle the caseload

what do defense attorneys recommend

-recommend a trial when the risks of trial are low and the possible gains are high

Uniform Crime Report

-the most publicized and widely used measure of crime comes from the federal bureau of investigation -Summary-Based -Reported by roughly 18,000 law enforcement agencies -Stats publicized in Crime in the United States

Type 1 offenses

1. Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter 2. Forcible Rape 3. Robbery 4. Aggravated Assualt 5.Burglary 6. Larceny/theft 7. Motor Vehicle Theft 8. Arson These offenses were chosen because they are serious crimes, they occur with regularity in all areas of the country, and they are likely to be reported to police. The Part I offenses are defined as:

Omnibus Crime Control and Safe streets Act of 1968

1. limiting wiretapes 2. multiple layers of judicial reviews 3. try not to listen to other people besides the intended target 4. confidentiality of other information 5. making sure the right people only have access to the wiretape

suppression motions

- A motion to suppress evidence is a request by a defendant that the judge exclude certain evidence from trial. The defense often makes this motion well in advance of trial—if the defendant wins it, the prosecution or judge may have to dismiss the case.

Immunity

- A person can not be prosecuted

warrantless searches

- A search of someone's body or property conducted by law enforcement personnel without the issuance of a search warrant.

Subpoena Power

- A subpoena is a document that requires its recipient to appear in court as a witness. If you receive a subpoena, it doesn't mean you've done anything wrong; it just means you may have information that's needed by the court.

Abandoned property

- Abandoned Property Law and Legal Definition. ... The person finding the abandoned property is entitled to keep it. A police officer shall take possession of abandoned property as evidence without violating the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

14th Amendment

- All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Pretrial Release

- Allowing people to go home without monetary payment but in other ways of monitoring

Arrest Warrant

- An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual, or the search and seizure of an individual's property.

Indictment

- An indictment is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an offense that requires an indictment.

Inventory Searches

- An inventory search is a warrantless search of a lawfully impounded vehicle conducted by police. The purpose of an inventory search is for the police to determine the contents of a vehicle in order to fulfill a variety of administrative functions

Motor Vehicle Search

- Any vehicle can get search for anything if deemed suspicious

Attenuation doctrine

- Attenuation Doctrine Law and Legal Definition. In criminal proceedings, the attenuation rule provides that despite the illegality in obtaining evidence, such evidence may be admissible if the connection between the evidence and the illegal method is sufficiently remote or attenuated. - It so different that they have to take the evidence

Searches Incident to lawful arrest

- Can search someone if they are lawfully arrested - Search incident to a lawful arrest, commonly known as search incident to arrest (SITA) or the Chimel rule, is a legal principle that allows police to perform a warrantless search of an arrested person, and the area within the arrestee's immediate control, in the interest of officer safety, the prevention of escape,

What are the 4 types of charging document

- Complaint - Information -Arrest Warrant - indictment

The steps of the courts

- Crime -Arrest - Initial Appearance - Charging - Bail - Preliminary Hearing - Grand Jury or Arriagnment

Cash Bond

- Defendant posts full amount or percentage required by Court

Preventive Detention

- Depending on the effectively holding suspects without bail if they are accused of committing a dangerious or violent crime and locking them up if deemed necessary - Depending on the jurisdiction bail may be set during an initial appearance a preliminary hearing or a separate bail hearing

Derivative Evidence

- Derivative evidence is evidence obtained illegally. It is inadmissible because of primary taint ie., the illegal way in which it was obtained. It can be evidence obtained in violation of the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures. The evidence can be facts, information, or physical objects.

Arraignment

- Felony charges occurs in the trial court of general jurisdiction. During the arriagnment the defendant is formally accused of a crime

Good Faith

- First, when police act in good faith on warrant or statute reasonably believed to be valid but is later determined to be defective warrant or an unconstitutional statute their good faith reliance on the warrant or law usually allows the evidence collected to be admissible - admissible means acceptable and valid

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree

- Fruit of the poisonous tree is a legal metaphor in the United States used to describe evidence that is obtained illegally. The logic of the terminology is that if the source (the "tree") of the evidence or evidence itself is tainted, then anything gained (the "fruit") from it is tainted as well.

6th Amendment

- In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

Inevitable discovery

- Inevitable discovery is a doctrine in the United States criminal procedure that allows evidence of a defendant's guilt that would otherwise be considered inadmissible under the exclusionary rule to be admitted into evidence in a trial. - Basically, if it was going to be discovered any way and a cop interrogates someone it is still admissible

Binds Over

- Magistrates can bind over a person to be of good behaviour or to keep the peace, any person, such as a defendant, witness or claimant. This may happen where the case involves violence or the threat of it. Sometimes the prosecution will drop such a charge if the defendant agrees to be bound over in this way.

Probable Cause

- Most likely than not a crime has been committed

Formal Charging of document

- Must allege the essential elements of the crime -Satisfy 6th Amendment requirement that Defendant be given sufficient notice -Corpus delicti of the crime must be specified

Searches of public employers and/ of their work space

- Neither probable cause nor warrant is necessary for public employers to conduct searches either for work-related purposes or for investigations of work related misconduct

Unreasonable Search and Seizures

- Occurs when law enforcement infringes upon property rights or a reasonable expectation of privacy by conducting a search or seizure without complying with a the second clause of the 4th amendment

Bail Agents/ Bounty Hunters

- People who, for a nonrefundable fee, post a bond with the court - They hunt down the people that skipped the court house

Confrontations

- Pretrial Confrontations between witnesses and suspects (show-ups, photo arrays, and lineups) that were either unreliable (therefore violating due process) - This can all be excluded from a trail

Exclusionary Rule

- Prohibits the prosecutor from using illegally obtained evidence during a trail. _ This is like the Miranda case a person must know their rights - Search and Seizure is a big part if officer doesn't have probable cause they can not just search anything they want because in court exclusionary rule applies

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

- Rather than summary based. It tracks all of the same offenses covered in the traditional UCR Type one and two categories, plus a few others, such as criminal trespass and passing bad checks. A wealth of data gathered about each incident, including - the location of the crime -whether the crime was completed or attempted -the type of weapon used the type of value of property damaged or stolen the personal characteristics of both the offender and the victim

How to determine bail

- Risk of Flight and Other Nonappearance -Risk to self and other -Situational Justice like their acts, responses to the questions and their demographic

Special needs searches in public schools

- School only need reasonable grounds to search a student not a search warrant because school have different rules

5th Amendment

- The Fifth Amendment imposes restrictions on the government's prosecution of persons accused of crimes. It prohibits self-incrimination and double jeopardy and mandates due process of law.

4th Amendment

- The Fourth Amendment (Amendment IV) to the United States Constitution prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires any search warrant to be judicially sanctioned and supported by probable cause.

Border Searches

- The U.S protect their borders through searchers

Discovery

- The informal and formal exchange of information between prosecution and defense is referred to as discovery

initial appearance

- The initial court appearance is usually pretty brief (1-10 minutes). The main actions that occur at the initial appearance are: The judge will provide the defendant with a copy of the criminal complaint. The complaint will list the charge or charges and the maximum possible penalty upon conviction. -must be given without delay -It is promptly - It notifys people of their rights

Searches of open field

- The open-fields doctrine (also open-field doctrine or open-fields rule), in the U.S. law of criminal procedure, is the legal doctrine that a "warrantless search of the area outside a property owner's curtilage" does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Consent Searches

- The person gave permission to the police to search the propperty

Plain View

- The plain view doctrine allows an officer to seize, without a warrant, evidence and contraband that are found in plain view during a lawful observation. The doctrine is also regularly used by TSA Federal Government Officers while screening persons and property at U.S. airports.

Preliminary Hearing

- Within some criminal justice systems, a preliminary hearing, preliminary examination, evidentiary hearing or probable cause hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecutor, to determine whether there is enough evidence to require a trial.

Use Immunity

- Witness immunity from prosecution occurs when a prosecutor grants immunity to a witness in exchange for testimony or production of other evidence

Magistrates

- a civil officer or lay judge who administers the law, especially one who conducts a court that deals with minor offenses and holds preliminary hearings for more serious ones.

Nolle Prosequi

- a formal notice of abandonment by a plaintiff or prosecutor of all or part of a suit or action.

Grand Jury

- a jury, normally of twenty-three jurors, selected to examine the validity of an accusation before trial.

Administrative Searches

- a search (as a frisk) conducted by a law enforcement officer for the purpose of ensuring against threats to safety (as from a concealed weapon) or sometimes to prevent the destruction of evidence. regulatory search. : administrative search in this entry.

Bench Warrant

- a written order issued by a judge authorizing the arrest of a person charged with some contempt, crime, or misdemeanor. - The warrant allows for police to arrest the person

Affidavit

- a written statement of facts sworn to before the magistrate. Several jurisdictions permit issuance of search warrants over the telephone or by e-mail or facsimile(fax), but still, require that the information provided by the police to magistrate be given under oath and recorded.

Type 2 offense

- are everything else that didn't land on type one offenses

Custodial Interrogations

- basically when Miranda rights are told only to people who are in custody and being interrogated

Consent surveillance

- basically you cant get someone to consent into survelliance of an other person

Transactional Immunity

- colloquially known as "blanket" or "total" immunity, completely protects the witness from future prosecution for crimes related to his or her testimony.

Reciprocal Disclosure

- could refer to the mandatory disclosure to be made by a defendant when s/he engages in any discovery process. When a defendant engages in a discovery process, s/he must provide reciprocal disclosure - This means that the discovery happens automatically without a request in court. but it can cause an issue on who gets what.

Boykin form

- courts often use a Boykin form to ensure that defendants have been informed of all the rights they are waiving

Hierarchy Rule

- if multiple crimes happen only the most serious crimes are reported

Alford Plea

- in United States law is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence.

Independent Source

- independent source doctrine will allow such evidence to be admitted at trail. -the independent source doctrine is an exception to the exclusionary rule. The doctrine applies to evidence initially discovered during, or as a consequence of, an unlawful search, but later obtained independently from activities untainted by the initial illegality.

Stored Communications Act

- is a law that addresses voluntary and compelled disclosure of "stored wire and electronic communications and transactional records" held by third-party internet service providers - you cant seize any electronical device u want

Search warrant

- is a written document, signed by a judge or magistrate, authorizing a law enforcement officer to conduct a search - A judge may issue a search warrant - Must describe specifically the place and person - The officer must serve the warrant -executed in a timely manner -knock and announce

Exculpatory Evidence

- is any evidence that may be favorable to the defendant at trial either by tending to mitigate the defendants' culpability, thereby potentially reducing the defendants' sentence - This means the prosecution can not withhold evidence even though it benefits the defendant.

Impeachment Evidence

- is any evidence that would cast doubt on the credibility of a witness. - This means that a witness changed their story last minute

Information

- is virtually identical in form to the complaint, except that it is signed by the prosecutor

Alibi defense

- means that the defendant claims the crime was committed while the defendant was somewhere else, and thus could not have been the perpetrator

Chain of Custody

- n legal contexts, refers to the chronological documentation or paper trail, showing the papertrail, custody, control, transfer, analysis, and disposition of physical or electronic evidence.

arrest

- taking a person into custody

Plea on the Nose

- the defendant typically pleads to the original charge (often termed a plea on the nose) - In a sentence bargain,

Video surveillance

- the use of video cameras that record only images not sound

Complaint (Charging of document)

- under oath or affirmation (Used for Misdemeanors) -By police officer; or -Victim -Accompanies Information

it is a common assumption that defendants who do not enter a plea of guilty can expect harsher sentences typically called

-"jury trial penalty"

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act

regulates the electronic survelliance of foriegn powers and their agents within the United States - The Act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to oversee requests for surveillance warrants by federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

Allocution Hearing

-An allocution, or allocutus, is a formal statement made to the court by the defendant who has been found guilty prior to being sentenced. It is part of the criminal procedure in some jurisdictions using common law.

Plea agreements take one or more of the following three forms

-Charge bargaining -Count bargaining -Sentence bargaining

Informal Charging of document

-Charging Document for Misdemeanors -Nearly identical wording as Complaint -Signed by prosecutor

8th Amendment

-Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.