Felony Criminal Charge Procedure - Case Study Example

Felony Criminal Charge Procedure Introduction Criminal justice procedures are crucial in any modest society, as they serve to instil sanity and lawful coexistence among people (Champion, 1988). However, because of the varying nature of the legislation available in different societies the course that criminal justice procedures take tend varying from state to state depending on the legislation and rules governing them. This paper will dwell on elaborating the criminal justice procedure that is followed for felony charge offenders (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). Despite the procedure varying from state to state, there are acceptable steps that are involved which all the states and federal government concur. This essay will be focussed on the criminal procedures stages that are common among the two level of government in bringing felony suspects to justice. It will make an in-depth discussion of the process right from the initial stage of the investigation until sentence of the case is determined (Moak & Carlson, 2012). A criminal case is essentially one that an individual is accused of causing harm or destruction to the general society through one or more of his actions. They usually take two forms either misdemeanour or felony charges (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). A misdemeanour is a less serious case and thus magistrate judges handle it. Often it is punishable by a fine of less than one year imprisonment in jail. On the other hand, felonies are perceived to be more grievous cases that require more attention. They are usually handled by district judges in district courts. These crimes are punishable of incarceration in state correction centres (Champion, 1988). The crime A felony charge is committed when an individual acts in a manner that contravenes the state or federal laws thus causing harm or destruction to the general public. A suspect of a felony charge may be arrested depending on the scenario (Moak & Carlson, 2012). First an individual can be arrested by police responding to a reported crime if he/she around the crime scene where the incidence has been reported, alternatively after a crime has been reported police will commence investigations to determine the perpetrators. In the process of piecing together the available evidence an individual may be implicated by either the fingerprints, which were found at the scene of the crime, DNA samples found at the crime scene or CCTV footage of the premise where the crime occurred. In the first scenario the suspect is arrested, the police officer responsible for the arrest signs a sworn affidavit and complaint sheet that outlines the reason for the arrest and the crimes that were actually committed by the suspect (Moak & Carlson, 2012). Later on the district magistrate will carefully scrutinize the documents presented to his office to determine whether there is enough ground to convict the accused. In the second scenario based on available evidence that implicated the suspect, an arrest warrant is issued to bring the suspect under custody. Once the suspect has been arrested he/she is officially booked into police custody as he/she awaits the police to send the case to the prosecutor for charges to be made (Champion, 1988). Charges After arrest, the police will present the grounds under which they made the arrest to the prosecutor to determine whether they are reasonable grounds for the accused to answer criminal charges that have been levelled against him/her. If the evidence is sufficient, then the prosecutor will give a go ahead, however, if the evidence lacks the prosecutor may instruct the police to go out and collect additional evidence through investigation (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). This may involve combing the scene of the crime for physical evidence or interviewing eyewitnesses, suspects as well as the crime victims. If the process will still not provide enough evidence to implicate a suspect, the charges against him/her will thus be unconditionally dropped, and the suspect released from police custody (Moak & Carlson, 2012). Once investigation has been completed the police will seek the prosecutor to determine the admissibility of the charges. The prosecutor can either approve or disapprove the charges presented by police officers. In the event that the charges are disapproved the police will proceed to charge the suspect with misdemeanour charges where appropriate (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). Bail Bail is a specified amount/sum of money that a suspect under custody pays to the state to secure his/her release from police custody pending the hearing of his/her case; it is normally determined by the judge depending on the charges levelled against the suspect. In some case the suspect may be denied bail. This may occur if the prosecutor applies to the presiding judge to do so as the suspect may jeopardize investigations if released thus leading to obstruction of justice. In this case the suspect has to remain under police custody as he/she awaits the hearing date of the case (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). Preliminary hearing, the court prosecutor may opt to proceed to a preliminary hearing. The judges will analyse the evidence presented and determine whether there are sufficient grounds under which the suspect will be convicted with the charges levelled against him/her. If the evidence is sufficient enough the prosecutor will be required to prepare a document that requires the accused to stand trial in a court of law (Champion, 1988). Grand jury A grand jury in felony case involves between 15-21 citizens that determine indictment decisions for felony charges. For a quorum to be set, a minimum of twelve citizens must be present for the decisions made to be binding. In the grand jury, the court prosecutor will present evidence, after which the jury will scrutinize it before it decides on whether there are probable grounds that the accused committed the crimes levelled against him/her (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). The accused person is not required in this session however; he may be presented if the prosecutor requests so. Where the prosecutor finds sufficient grounds for a probable case, the prosecutor will proceed to prepare a document known as bill indictment. This is a charging document of the accused and should be signed by the leader of the jury and seconded by at least nine other members of the jury (Moak & Carlson, 2012). Arraignment The arraignment stage is close to the initial appearance stage as they share many similarities, however, in this stage the accused is presented with a document known as Information instead of a complaint sheet. The information is a document that contains the formal charges that the accused has been accused of. The presiding judge asks the accused whether he/she has obtained a copy of the information and carefully gone through its contents (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). If the accused with aid from his attorney have fully understood what the information contains, the accused will be asked to take a plea. The plea can be made in a number of forms which include; not guilty, guilty, guilty but mentally ill, or the accused can decide to stay mute. The court will unconditionally reject a guilty plea by the defendant without prior agreement. This will be followed by a thorough scrutiny of the defendant to establish whether he fully understands the implications of his decision (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). Once it has been determined that the defendant is fully aware of his decisions the court will accept the plea. If the defendant chooses pleading not guilty, the case will automatically proceed to trial. The defendant can alternatively choose to plead guilty but mentally ill (Moak & Carlson, 2012). This means he/she may be guilty of the offence accused but might have been insane at the time of committing a crime. The judge will direct that the defendant undergoes a medical examination and a formal report be presented before the court. Once the court is available the court will hold a hearing on the issue and if indeed it is determined that the accused wasnt mentally stable at time of committing the offense crime the court will accept the plea (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). Pre-trial/status conference This stage may involve a number of pre-trial motions where court dates are set for the defendant to enable the court prepare adequately for the trial process. Pre-trial motions are specifically set to tackle key issues or any contentious matter that may be inherent which may include; claim of use of unorthodox means to obtain evidence that the court will rely on, reduction of the body imposed, issues pertaining to respect of evidence that has been disclosed or admissibility issues (Moak & Carlson, 2012). Pre-trial preparation It is the duty of both the defence counsel and prosecutor to secure evidence, look for witnesses and record statements for the purpose of the case. The accused is always presume innocent until proven guilty (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). Thus, the prosecutor will be tasked tackling evidence that implicates the defendant to be guilty as charged beyond reasonable doubt. Part of the pre-trial preparation will involve witness cross-examination, and the defence will also get a chance to analysing evidence brought before a court for any inaccuracy, inconsistency or ambiguity (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). The prosecutor can decide to enter into a plea agreement with the defendant; this serves to inform the presiding judge that the defendant has pleaded guilty and thus certain sentences should be imposed. However the judge may reject the plea agreement, in the event the prosecutor and defendant are not certain of the plea agreement request they will organize a 402 conference where the judges will determine whether the plea will or will not be approved (Moak & Carlson, 2012). Trial Trial will always proceed to determine whether the accused is guilty or not. The person accused can only be found guilty if the prosecutor provides enough evidence that implicate the defendant of having committed the crimes charged with beyond reasonable doubt. In the event where the prosecutor fails to meet the burden of proof as the court procedures provides, the two parties will be required to present all the available evidence before judges where the strengths of each will be determined (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). Bench and jury trial A bench trial is where the judge determines whether the accused is guilty as charged based on available evidence and according to constitutional provisions. A jury trial is a forum made up of twelve citizens who have been randomly picked to ascertain if the defendant is guilty or not (Champion, 1988). In a felony charge trial the accused has the right of undergoing a jury trial, however he/she can decide to turn down the privileged and proceed with a bench trial. Once the jury has been set all parties in the case are allowed to make opening statements based on the evidence that is available (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). The next step involves the prosecutor tabling its evidence before the jury. After their submission, they may also be allowed to present physical evidence which include; sworn affidavit, witness statements, and even actual witness testifying. On completing making submissions, the defendant may forward a motion to request the judges to make a directed verdict. The judges may either accept the motion and make a direct verdict or reject the motion to pave way for the trial to continue whereby the defence counsel will be required to table a defence to the crimes charged (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). Sentence Before the presiding judge can embark of determining the sentence, a pre-sentence investigation is conducted. This is aimed at providing information of the accused that may help the judges determine the rationale of the sentence to be offered and also that will render success of the sentence. Once the accused has been declared guilty as charged, the judge will proceed to make a sentence regarding the case (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). This may come in a couple of ways these may include; jail term, probation, conditional discharge or imprisonment. Probation is where the offender is allowed to live among the community but certain conditions as instructed by the judge for a specified period. The period of probation depends on the class of felony committed. For instance, felony of classes 1 & 2 the probation period is set to be less than eight months; in case of class 4 & 5 felony crimes the probation period cannot exceed thirty months. However, an individual convicted of class X felony charges is not supposed to be granted probation (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). Conditional discharge is where court orders the defendant to comply with certain conditions without supervision. The judge can also sentence the offender to undergo treatment; this may come undergrounds of mental problems, anger management, and sex offence or drug abuse. Alternatively the offender maybe sentenced to periodic imprisonment whereby he/she may be required to report to correctional facilities at certain specific times while still managing personal obligations. Felony offender can also be sentenced to full-time imprisonment whereby they may be sent to state correctional facilities for incarceration (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012). Criminal appeal An appeal is lodged when a convicted person seeks the jurisdiction of a higher court to examine the ruling made by previous judges on his/her case based on the possible errors that would have contravened a fair trial and determination of the case. After the presiding judge makes the final ruling on the case the convicted has a maximum of thirty days to file a notice of appeal with the appellate court (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). Once the appeal notice has been received the defendant is expected to furnish the court with a number of legal briefs that contain a description of the evidence and all information therein that propagated the appeal. Before appellate judges make the final decision on the case, the defendant together with the prosecutor will be required before the court to make final submissions. The decision that the judges will settle for will be solely based on analysis made from the briefs. The appeal can result to the case been dismissed and fresh sentence ordered; certain provisions that were made in the sentence may be reviewed or the previous ruling may be upheld altogether (Scheb & Scheb, 2011). Recommendations The state and federal judicial system have excellent provisions on the manner on which felony charges are handled. The framework under which an accused person is arrested, and the modalities that are followed till the accused person is brought to book is quite recommendable. However, most people fail to be represented fairly in the trial due to lack of funds for procuring competent attorney to represent them. The state should provide a mechanism that ensures the accused is represented by qualified attorney. Mechanisms should institute to ensure the course of justice is not obstructed by ensuring a speedy trial process where the accused are not reprimanded for long before the case is determined (McCord, McCord, & Bailey, 2012) References Champion, D. J. (1988). Felony probation: Problems and prospects. New York: Praeger. McCord, J. W. H., McCord, S. L., & Bailey, C. S. (2012). Criminal law and procedure for the paralegal: A systems approach. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. Moak, S., & Carlson, R. L. (2012). Criminal justice procedure. Cincinnati, Ohio: Anderson. Scheb, J. M., & Scheb, J. M. (2011). Criminal law and procedure. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Scheb, J. M., & Scheb, J. M. I. I. (2011). Criminal Procedure. Sl: Wadsworth Pub Co. --- Read More