Criminal Case and the Descriptions of a English Legal Profession - Coursework Example

Writing a summary of a criminal case and the s of a English Legal Profession English justice system English Justice System has a hierarchical view with different layers of access to justice. On top of the system is The Supreme Court which is the final court of appeal for all UK cases, including civil and criminal. Under the Supreme Court comes Court of Appeal which has a criminal and civil division. This court handles cases that come from High Court and Crown Court in form of appeals. Under the Court of Appeal is High Court which has different divisions. The last layer of the justice system has Crown court, County court, Magistrate court and Tribunals. Below is a chart explaining the hierarchy and line of work of different courts. The general role of the Crown Court in the Justice System The crown part is part of HMCS standing beside County Courts, Magistrates’ courts and tribunals. Crown court basically deals with criminal cases which have a serious nature. These cases are usually related to murder, rape or robbery. Some of these cases come from Magistrate court in the form of an appeal. The crown court handles cases with Judges and Jury. Jury is usually based on 12 people who are selected from the public. England and Wales have 77 crown courts in total. These courts manage their running from the public funds. These funds are granted to them by Ministry of Justice every financial year. Courts procedures also have fees attached to them. (www.hmcs.gov.uk, 2 April 2009) the roles of the court officials The crown court has not been in existence for a very long time. A court act of 1972 replaced Assizes as crown courts. Since 1972 the court officials are traditionally divided into these categories, Court Clerks Court Officers Judges Jury Ushers The court officials and staff are based on Administrative officers, Managers, Judges, Jury Members, and Ushers. Clerks and Officers at Crown Court: The administrative work of preparing case files, correspondence, and referral to judges, etc is done by court administrative officers. These officers are under the supervision of executive officer, office manager, and court manager of Crown Court. The clerks of court also sit during trails, its their responsibility to administrate the court room and assist the jude with any dates required. The clerk also records the progress of a case and make sure that hearing dates are assigned. Judges: The hearing and trail part of the case involve members of Jury, Judges, and Ushers. Judges at the crown court are Recorders, High court, and Circuit judges. Recorders are normally those solicitors and barristers who practice privately and can sit as Judge in Crown or County court as Judges. Solicitors and Barristers are also part of trail and appeal process. However they are not the court’s officials. They are hired by defendants/or the applicants. In case of parties not being able to afford the legal fees, legal aid hires a solicitor or barrister for the trial. The judge role at the crown court is to make sure that all parties get a fair chance to present their case in front of the jury. At the end of trail and before jury makes the decision, its judge’s responsibility to sum up a case when all the evidence has been heard from all parties. Depending on the verdict that Jury gives, the judge decided on the appropriate sentence for the defendant. Jury: Jury is based on members chosen from electoral register and they are usually 12 in number. The jury listens during the case and decide on the verdict of guilty or not guilty. Ushers: Ushers are also part of court officials; they play the role in office work however major part of their work is related to cases. They sit in court during cases, call for cases, witnesses etc. Criticism of System: The system of crown court works as HMCS provides the staff resources to allocate dates and slots for when the cases need to be heard. This task is usually performed by courts clerks. The managers and officer of the court make sure that management and progression of case and overall court function is smoothly run. The whole system has been under criticism due to financial constraints for the past few years. The management has complained of low budgets and short staffing, while the solicitors and clients complain for late allocation of dates and slow admin work. (Hedderman and Moxon, 1992) The System Appraisal English justice system as a whole seems to be well linked to each other. Different layers of justice system make sure that system always have a check and balance. The Crown court deal with the cases of serious criminal offences and also the appeals from Magistrate court. However if the defendant or plaintiff is not satisfied by the system they can always appeal at a higher level. The whole system should be praised because its developed in a way to serve the justice best. The summary of the case, R v. Gary Fisher The basis purpose of writing this essay is to look into detail the case of R v Gary Fisher. In the following paragraph I will summarize the whole case with its background, trail period and final result. (The summary is made up from the following sources; references are in detail in reference section) (BBC, 2010) (Timesonline, 2009) (www.guardian.co.uk, 2009) (www.skynews.com, 2009) Background Gary Fisher and Jayne (Sascha – victim’s mother) met in West midland in 1991. They had three children together before splitting up. The mother moved to Wales after the separation with her three children in late 90’s. It is said by a close friend that this move was due to violent nature of Gary Fisher and family wanted to escape that. Gary Fisher did not have any contact with the children and his ex-wife. However some 5 years ago he made the contact with the children. Chanelle Sasha was among one of his children, she was 17 year old girl and was a childcare student at Cardigan. The Murder On 2nd August 2009 police stopped a car after becoming suspicious through a sting divide. A man in his 40’s was arrested and body of a girl was found from the car boot. The girl was later recognized as Sasha and man as Gary Fisher, Sasha’s father. Police said that Fisher drove around with the dead body for 10 hours before being arrested. The postmortem revealed that the girl suffered 22 injuries including 2 possible stabs in her heart. Fisher told the police on the spot of arrest that he did not kill his daughter rather it was just a suicide pact. Sasha was reported missing by a member of the family earlier the day of her murder. The trial The murder investigations were launched against Gary Fisher on 3rd of August 2009. He was later arrested and appeared in Crown court on 14th August 2009. During the trail several other facts came into light after Fisher confessed killing his daughter. He claimed that it wasn’t a murder rather manslaughter. Fisher was driving a Ford Fiesta in Aberaeron. He drove his car to a car park near the towns Angel Hotel and committed the murder. The jury was told that after the murder Gary Fisher covered her daughter’s body in a sleeping bag and drove his car around for many hours. After the police become suspicious of the car, they chased it and eventually stopped it with a stinger device. The body was found and Gary Fisher was arrested on the scene. Police said that after the arrest, G Fisher told the policeman that his daughter wanted to die because she had a sex attack and she did not want to live anymore. He claimed that he did not murder his daughter but did so as a suicide pact to end her sufferings. He also claimed that he planned the murder for 2 and half months before finally executing it. The police however affirmed that they did not have any complaint regarding a sex attack on Sasha. Fisher also told the police that after he drove into the car park, he got out of the car and then opened the passenger seat where Sasha was sitting. He had a knife in his hand and Sasha seemed shocked to see the knife. He then started stabbing her, she tried to defend herself and got out of the car, the girl had defensive injuries on her hands. Fisher told police that she couldn’t get out of the car due to the seat belt. After killing his daughter, he put her body in a body bag and put it in the car boot During the trail the jury was told other facts that eventually led to declaring Fisher guilty. One of the facts revealed to the jury was that Fisher called his sister after the murder and confessed it over the phone. He could not speak to his sister but he told his niece that he had killed her elder cousin. He also informed one of his cousins on what he had done. The jury was also told about an argument that took place between father and daughter on the issue of Sasha wanting to live with her boyfriend rather than her father. Fisher refused to give evidence during the trial. The Decision The jury at Swansea Crown court took one hour to reach the decision and on 10th of March the jury declared Gary Fisher guilty of murder. He is still in police custody and is expected to receive a life imprisonment at a later date. Judge said on the day of the decision that there is only one sentence for murder and that is life imprisonment. Area(s) of law in the above case There are several points of law in the above mentioned case. As Gary Fisher refused to take his evidence during the trail, much of the evidence presented was from police report. The evidence that Fisher called his sister to confess the murder was also crucial in this case. Another point in this case is that Fisher never denied the killing however he claimed of manslaughter rather than murder. The fact that there wasn’t any sexual attack complaint registered by police was also crucial evidence in the case. Fisher driving around in his car for 10 hours after the murder did not do any good for his case. References BBC. 2010. Man guilty of murdering daughter, Chanelle Sasha Jones [Online]. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/8560287.stm. [Accessed 27 march 2010 2010]. HEDDERMAN, C. & MOXON, D. 1992. Magistrates Court or Crown Court? Mode of Trial Decisions and Sentencing. No.: ISBN 011-341036-0, 53. TIMESONLINE. 2009. Father of body in car girl Chanelle Sasha Jones charged with murder [Online]. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article6741009.ece. [Accessed 27 march 2010 2010]. WWW.GUARDIAN.CO.UK. 2009. Police find missing girls body in car after chase [Online]. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/aug/03/chanelle-sasha-jones-body-police. [Accessed 27 March 2010 2010]. WWW.HMCS.GOV.UK. 2 April 2009. Crown Courts [Online]. http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/infoabout/crown/index.htm. [Accessed 27 March 2010 2010]. WWW.SKYNEWS.COM. 2009. Father In Court Over Dead Girl In Car [Online]. http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Teenager-Chanelle-Sasha-Jones-Found-Stabbed-To-Death-In-Car-Father-Charged-With-Her-Murder/Article/200908115355068?lpos=UK_News_Top_Stories_Header_0&lid=ARTICLE_15355068_Teenager_Chanelle_Sasha_Jones_Found_Stabbed_To_Death_In_Car%3A_Father_Charged_With_Her_Murder. [Accessed 27 March 2010 2010]. Read More